42 Solutions to showcase anti-drone solution during NATO Communications and Information Agency C-UAS trials

Dutch mission-critical software provider 42 Solutions BV will showcase its latest capabilities in anti-drone technology during a live trial session hosted by the NATO Communications and Information Agency at the Joint Nucleus Counter-UAS Test Center of the Ground Based Air Defence Command, NL from September 28th until October 2nd 2020.

42 Solutions will deploy its recently released UAV threat mitigation solution called Sparrow and will interface with multiple sensor platforms gathered for the event. Sparrow is a modular multi-sensor and fully integrated system that helps organizations threatened
by rogue drone operations to respond instantly thanks to an accurate air picture. Sparrow assesses threats by incorporating UTM and ATC data and shares the situational awareness with all involved stakeholders, including ATC and security forces. Swift alerting capabilities facilitate agile and collaborative decision-making.

Sparrow uses information from multiple sources to detect UAV traffic. The system can be configured with a variety of sensor technologies and classification methods (electrooptical, radio-frequency, doppler signatures) to ensure maximized detection quality. The system has already been successfully integrated with Robin Radar’s Elvira® and Rinicom’s SkyPatriot. Rinicom is 42 Solutions’ technology partner in the EUROSTARS funded Counter-UAV Protection System for Airports (CUPS) and provides Sparrow with high-performance electro-optical coverage associated with comprehensive AI-based video analytics for autonomous target identification and classification.

The open architecture can also integrate additional sensors depending on the mission profile and customer requirements. Traffic is displayed on a customizable air situation display which uses ATC data, sensor target reports and UTM data. UAV traffic that is violating regulations and/or compromising safety will trigger an alert on a Command & Control (C2) position. Information can be disseminated to all parties involved on a mobile app and collaborative decisions can be taken faster to efficiently eliminate the threat.

Rinicom’s SkyPatriot EO sensors will be deployed alongside Sparrow and ELVIRA to widen the scope of detection visually and help reduce false positive by separating detections of birds and drones picked up by the radar. Furthermore, SkyPatriot will add autonomy to the overall solution to reduce the requirement of specialist operators.

“We are thrilled to be able to demonstrate what Sparrow can offer for safer airport operations and public safety in general. We believe that non-cooperative drones in the vicinity of safety-critical infrastructures pose an unquestionable threat and we want to help with this”, said Walter Strijland, 42 Solutions’ Director and Co-Founder. “We look forward to these tests and we will for sure report about the results on our website and social networks. This will really be a great opportunity to work on increased interoperability of our respective systems. We’d like to obviously express our special thanks to NCIA for organizing this event”.

“We have been working in close collaboration with our partners from 42 Solutions for the past 4 years, and our systems work very well together. We have made our respective architectures open so that we can complement an already comprehensive detection and classification environment with additional sensor capabilities”, said Sam Lowe, Sales Manager at Rinicom. “Such live events are perfect as they allow the community to collaborate and jointly progress on anti-drone best practices.”