Counter-Drone Market Continues to Grow

Drones are getting harder, better, faster, stronger. And since they keep appearing where they shouldn’t be, the counter-drone market is booming.

277 manufacturers are publicly marketing counter-drone solutions, per a new report from Bard College's Center for the Study of the Drone. In February 2018, Bard counted 155 manufacturers.

• 175 products detect drones via radar signature, radio-frequency, heat profile, sound, and more.
• 214 are exclusively designed for “interdiction,” a fancy term for taking over or kabooming a drone. Interdiction options include jamming, spoofing, lasers, nets, and...attack drones.
• At least 138 bundle detection and interdiction.

Arthur Holland Michel, the report’s author and the center’s co-director, told me that a few years ago everyone was asking him about the exciting potential of drones. Now? “Everyone calls me to ask how to shoot the damn things down.”

The catch: Counter-drone tech is pricey and playing catch-up to the commercial drone sector’s advances. And no current products on the market are “silver bullets,” Michel said.