As we struggle to come to terms with the fact that soon our skies will be darkened by flocks of unmanned aerial vehicles – you know, drones – doing everything from delivering packages, creep-peeping the hottie next door, sneaking meth across the border, and, of course, fighting insurgents, there is a backlash brewing to the free flying dreams of UAV entrepreneurs. Which means while you may not be able to get your NIMBY ‘Murica mitts on an actual drone hunting license, there is a whole industry working on ways to bring these soon-to-be ubiquitous robot carrier pigeons down to earth.
The latest entry in the anti-drone market is straight out of science fiction, or at least sounds that way at first – it’s a death ray. No, really. Luckily, however, it’s a death ray that only works on robots, by turning them off mid-flight and bringing them plummeting to the ground. Distributed in the United State by Liteye, a Colorado-based company that offers a wide array of militaristic products that are mostly focused on intelligence, such as radar and thermal imaging, the AUDS anti UAV Defense System can “detect, track, identify, and defeat” drones, using what is essentially a concentrated radio wave blast to disable its flying prey.
Impressive, eh? It looks cool, too, in an Empire Strikes Back retro military tech sort of way. Available now, Liteye is focusing their sales efforts on airports and “the homeland security market.” Just in time to take out those drone swarms the army has been developing, if you are the type of person who worries about such things.
If a radio death ray isn’t space age enough to get your handmade tinfoil hat all askew with excitement, don’t fret – you can just hold out for the slightly more Death Star seeming compact laser weapons system from Boeing. Or keep it old school – grab a shotgun from your bomb shelter's arsenal and get all Duck Hunt on 'em:
