Anti-drone tests failure exposes US airport vulnerability

Bloomberg

US airports may be just as vulnerable as London’s Gatwick airport to the kind of illegal drone incursions that shut down the UK’s second-busiest hub last week.
Counter-drone technology performed so poorly in US government tests in recent years that the systems couldn’t reliably identify rogue unmanned aircraft, casting doubts on whether there’s a viable short-term solution to the intrusions that repeatedly disrupted the London airport this week.
Radars designed to track drones didn’t work when the devices hovered in place. The systems generated a large number of false sightings. And the saturation of radio broadcasts around airports blanked out some drone transmissions, making them hard to detect.
The test results were contained in a letter to US airports sent in July by the Federal Aviation Administration and seen by Bloomberg News. It advised air-strip operators not to obtain the counter-drone systems and warned they could be in violation of multiple laws if they do.
“The FAA does not endorse or advocate for the use of countermeasures in the airport environment given the likely resulting impact on the safety and efficiency of the nation’s airspace,” John Dermody, FAA’s director of airport safety and standards, said.
Gatwick briefly halted flights last week after another drone flew near the airport, the third day such illegal incursions disrupted traffic during the busy holiday travel season. The airport has been trying to get operations back on track after an earlier 36-hour suspension that derailed travel plans for more than 120,000 people.
UK law enforcement and military have been photographed using what appear to be drone detectors that can home in on their control signals. So far, authorities haven’t been able to stop the flights or apprehend their operators.
The Department of Homeland Security is working with UK authorities and has offered to supply technical support, according to a statement from the agency.
The FAA hasn’t commented on the Gatwick situation. Earlier this year, Congress granted authority to the FBI and Homeland Security agencies to monitor drone radio signals and to use measures
to take them down in extreme cases.
Even though agencies such as the Transportation Security Administration have been aware of the drone threat for years, the Gatwick situation has sent shock waves through the world of airport security, said John Halinski, a former TSA deputy administrator.
Drones can cause more damage in a collision with an airliner than a similar-sized bird, a 2017 study commissioned by FAA found. Simulations predicted significant damage to windshields, wings and tail surfaces of aircraft. However, an impact with a small consumer drone — the most popular models weigh about two to three pounds (0.91 to 1.36 kilograms) — isn’t likely to prove catastrophic, the study found.
Calls to airports and law enforcement agencies around the US suggest that there are few tools available beyond reports from the public and the eyes and ears of officers.
Reports of drone sightings near Baltimore-Washington Thurgood Marshall International Airport would be investigated by officers on patrol to locate the operator, said Corporal Edward Bartlinski, public information officer for the Maryland Transportation Authority Police, which has jurisdiction over the airport.
The agency would also contact federal law enforcement officials for assistance.
The department doesn’t have an official policy on drone countermeasures, he said.
“That could be looked at in the future but as of right now, the public is our best weapon against something like that happening here,” he said.
Andrew Trull, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority that oversees Reagan National Airport in Washington and Dulles International Airport in Virginia, said law enforcement officials treat possible drone activity much like other potential hazards to aircraft, such as birds, he said.
The July letter from FAA suggests that existing technology to halt or deter such intrusions isn’t too promising.
“High radio spectrum congestion” around airports made detecting drone control signals more difficult than anticipated, the FAA said in the letter. In some instances detection wasn’t possible at all.