The Department of Homeland Security of late is hearing from its components that their interest in counter-drone technologies is shifting more toward mobile systems than fixed systems, a department official said on Thursday. This is a requirement that has emerged in the "last few months" and is a shift in "what we had originally been thinking," which is that "we'd probably be deploying more fixed-site systems," Shawn McDonald, the program manager for Counter Unmanned Aircraft Systems (C-UAS) within the DHS Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate, said during a webinar hosted by S&T. Fixed-site C-UAS systems would be larger and have longer ranges and "would sit on top of a building and stay there forever," but mobility offers advantages depending on needs, McDonald said. For example, if Customs and Border Protection is using these systems to monitor the border, "you might want to focus your efforts in a certain area and then move them again in a couple weeks," he said. "You just can't do that with large systems."
展开▼
