Air Force Global Strike Command is looking for help to protect its infrastructure from personal drones. The command, on April 11, released a request for proposals to industry for counter unmanned aircraft systems, looking for portable ways to detect drones and their command and control ground stations to defeat them. The RFP calls for a small, portable system less than six pounds that “must disrupt or manage the control link between a commercial UAS and the pilot,” the RFP’s statement of work states. The command wants a handled device “like a rifle or large handgun” to take out the drones, according to information with the RFP. There is an urgent need for the response, meaning contractors only have until May 11 to respond to the request.
The Space Force is playing midwife to a new ecosystem of commercial satellite constellations providing alternatives to the service’s own Global Positioning Service from much closer to the Earth, making their signals more accurate and harder to jam.
