Drone Jammers

Drone jammers are counter-UAS (unmanned aerial systems) devices that are used to stop drone threats from entering controlled airspace and critical areas such as airports, prisons and industrial facilities. They may also be used to protect military personnel and buildings on the battlefield.

Anti Drone Jamming Systems

Anti-drone jamming devices may come in a variety of forms and work in a number of different ways.

Drone RF Jammers

DUET Wearable Drone Jammer by IXI Electronic Warfare

Drone signal jammers may be used to disrupt specific frequencies that UAVs depend on for communications between the aircraft and the ground control station (GCS). Common frequencies include 900 MHz, 2.4 GHZ, and 5.8 GHz, as well as 4G and 5G frequencies.

These drone frequency jammers work by overwhelming the drone’s communications equipment with stronger signals on these frequencies, thus drowning out the legitimate signals. With many drone models, this will force the aircraft to land or to return to a predefined home position such as the location of the pilot.

GPS & GNSS Jammers & Spoofers

Anti-drone jammers may also disrupt GNSS satellite navigation frequencies such as GPS, GLONASS, Galileo and Beidou. As with RF jammers, they work by emitting stronger signals than the typically weak GNSS signals. This makes the drone unable to navigate, which will often result in the aircraft crashing or immediately descending.

Counter-drone devices may also employ GNSS and GPS spoofing, which trick the drone’s navigation system into thinking that its current location is different to where it actually is. One application of this is tricking the drone into thinking it has entered a geofenced area, which may cause it to stop flying.

Drone Jamming Guns

Anti-drone jamming systems may be manufactured in a gun-like form factor, allowing them to be used intuitively by operators. These drone jammer guns may be able to perform RF jamming as well as GPS/GNSS jamming.

Drone jamming devices may also come in a number of other form factors, including portable and body-worn, vehicle-mounted, and fixed-site.

Unauthorized Use

Drone jammers can interfere with signals that affect a wide range of systems other than drones, such as vehicle navigation systems and signals used by the emergency services. Because of this threat to public safety, the use of unauthorized signal jammers is illegal in many countries.