Enabling the Drone Ecosystem

“Thales on the whole drone ecosystem” series. Chapter 4 : Laying the foundations for the drone revolution
(Access to other chapters at the end of this article)

The arrival of uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) has already revolutionised both the military and commercial sectors, and this is just the beginning. 

‘It’s a challenging industry because it’s touching many segments (UAV platforms, traffic management, Air surveillance …) making the ecosystem quite complex. But at the same time, it will happen because drones will bring a huge added value to our day-to-day life. That’s what’s wonderful – it’s a great space to play.’ (Frank Erb, Thales)

However, despite the vast growth potential, significant obstacles must be overcome.

In modern warfare, the value of UAS has been highlighted in recent conflicts. The widespread deployment of drones has shown that they have the potential to transform the way frontline forces are monitored and protected.

For the commercial sector, the seamless integration of autonomous aircraft into controlled airspace is a top priority for the industry.
As drone usage increases in the next several years and beyond, air traffic density is expected to surge compared to crewed aviation. Some specialists predict that the number of UAS in the airspace will eventually reach nearly 10,000 drones for each crewed aircraft.
Thus, the critical issue is finding ways to accommodate this substantial uptick in traffic without imposing additional concerns related to workload, safety, and security.

Navigating this path (integrating systems) requires consideration of innovation, partnerships and sharing our know-how and experience with other companies and organisations.

“Our dual expertise within the civil and military domains is an asset. Whether in terms of drones, traffic management or countermeasures, the shift will be to systems that will be integrated with everything else. Integration into military and civil airspace will be a necessity.”

The modern drone ecosystem is complex and fast-evolving; solutions must evolve as quickly as new usages, regulations, or threats emerge. And to support the air traffic management challenge of commercial UAS operations, or counter-UAS activities, a strong combination of expertise is required.
Thales works across all aspects of the UAS ecosystem, leveraging expertise in complementary technology areas and know-how, such as communications systems, Air Traffic Management (ATM), navigational aid equipment, onboard electronics, Artificial Intelligence, and cybersecurity.
 

Thales is securing the skies at all levels of the airspace, and when it comes to the lower airspace (to protect from drone threats)  the company is pursuing different avenues of innovation.

“We combine multiple techniques, hardware and software innovation to guarantee operational efficiency”
 (Jean-Philippe Hardange, Director of Strategy for the Integrated Airspace Protection Systems.) 
 

This all-encompassing approach to innovation can be demonstrated by the example of a military counter-UAS solution called ForceShield :
The systems first integrate technical innovations. For example, to improve detection capabilities, Thales radars are constantly innovating, such as the Ground Master 200 (GM200) medium-range radar for detection, equipped with gallium nitride transmitters, and fully digital receivers. Likewise, the counter-UAS system also features the ControlView command and control (C2) centre and the RAPIDRanger lightweight multi-missile launcher.
 

Our long lasting experience with operational requirements is valued in our solutions : the radar is designed to be light, easy to deploy and consume less energy than other radars in its class. In addition, the counter-UAS system benefits from automatic tracking and automatic firing capability, to accelerate the OODA loop without adding workload for the operator.

‘You can take an operator with no experience of the system, and within a few weeks, they can have almost 100% success when engaging a drone … it is something unique on the market today.’

However, the innovation does not stop with the technology itself.

To embrace the future we invest and engage in structures shaping the solutions to enable the drone revolution:

As an example, in France, at the end of 2021, a drone hub called CEDIF (Drone Center of Excellence Ile-de-France) was inaugurated, supported by three main players, Thales, Eurocontrol and Systematic. CEDIF offers a complete platform to incubate, validate and industrialise all direct and indirect drone activities.

Since January 2021, experts from across UK industry and academia have been collaborating in the Future Flight Challenge project called Airspace of the Future (AOF). AOF is a multi-skilled, cross-sector consortium, created to explore the practicalities and draft a blueprint for making this future vision possible.
 

Emmanuel Sprauel, VP of Strategy, Marketing and Product for Land & Air Systems, underscored Thales’ active collaboration with other organisations, serving as an integrator and also an enabler of new technologies across the UAS space and beyond.
For counter-UAS solutions, Thales acts as the single provider of end to end solutions, from detection to neutralisation – while establishing collaborations with the most innovative companies through partnerships.

A good example is the PARADE counter-UAS system developed for the French MoD. A consortium led by Thales and CS Group has deployed a modular and multi-mission anti-drone system. It can be used by armies to help protect events, the public and civil or military infrastructures.

With our experience in partnerships with government and civil administrations, we also offer new ways to monitor and control drones and make UTM [UAV Traffic Management] a priority for airspace security.

‘At Thales, we see collaboration and partnership as an essential lever for innovation. It’s about teaming up to come up with the best UTM  response. Because each actor has their own expertise, we bring together the best solutions to deliver the project that best suits the client’s needs.’ Emmanuel SPRAUEL

As an example, in October 2021, Vantis UAS selected Thales as its system integrator for North Dakota’s UAS network, which is being developed as the first statewide system to allow autonomous aircraft to operate beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS) in the US.
Thales is integrating surveillance, communications and cloud-hosted traffic management services for a first-of-its-kind safety-oriented, system-of-systems solution.

‘We are developing our vision of processing such an activity, even when all the elements are not yet ready,’ Sprauel explains.
 

‘How do we enter into experimentation? How do we scale the business? How do we make the business model happen? And how do we organise the different activities with the different types of customers we may face?’
As the drone ecosystem continues to develop, much of the focus is moving from the technological aspects to the demonstrated uses of drones and UAS management.

“A core element of Thales’ approach is to meet with customers to understand their needs and to propose a solution. This is, by nature, a collaborative approach”

‘I may not have the solution right now, but I will see if I can adapt my product to fit. You need to talk with our customers, understand their needs, and have a fully open discussion with them to work on the future. And I think that’s part of the job that is very exciting.’
(Vincent Moro, Product Line Manager for Air Traffic Control Radars)
 

Let’s take the example of Eagleshield IDetect system, developed for UK customers, as the basis of a Counter-UAV solution dedicated to airports.
We have developed a very scalable solution, with different sensors that are to be adapted to the real CONOPs of the airport, but also the environment and the constraints we may have. There are several solutions depending on the size of the area you want to look at and the number of sensors you have.
 

Frank Erb, director of business development for Thales Digital Aviation for the Asia-Pacific region, says it is vital to take this adaptive approach, depending on the partners and end customer. This ultimately comes down to individual use cases, which will be determined and expanded through active and deep collaboration.
For example, for the city of Geelong in Australia, Thales partnered with Telstra, a national telecommunications company, to trial the use of drones in various use cases: for example, coastline monitoring, examining rooftops for cracks and defects, even monitoring the height of trees.

‘What is relevant in this drone business and this drone ecosystem is the use cases,’ Erb says.