- The economics of drone warfare are changing rapidly, with inexpensive unmanned systems creating an increasingly difficult cost equation for traditional counter-UAS defenses.
- At the same time, fiber-optic-guided and autonomous drones can operate without the radio-frequency emissions that many conventional detection and jamming approaches depend on.
- Wrap Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: WRAP) is addressing both challenges through WrapShield(TM), combining Frenel Imaging Ltd.’s physics-based sensing technology with laser-directed energy for counter-UAS applications.
Drones have become an increasingly important tool in modern military operations, providing intelligence, surveillance and strike capabilities while reducing the need to put personnel directly in harm’s way. As these systems have become more accessible and sophisticated, however, they have also created a growing challenge for the technologies designed to stop them.
For counter-UAS operators, the problem is increasingly two-sided: How do you detect drones that are becoming harder to find, while also defeating them at a cost that makes sense?
The first challenge is economics.
Commercially available drones and components have lowered the cost of deploying unmanned systems, allowing adversaries to field large numbers of relatively inexpensive platforms. For defenders, using expensive interceptors or finite munitions against low-cost drones can quickly create an unfavorable cost exchange (https://nnw.fm/2LtZi).
Laser directed energy systems offer one potential way to change that equation. Unlike conventional interceptors, lasers can engage targets repeatedly without requiring a new physical munition for every shot, creating a fundamentally different cost structure. Although, reducing the cost of the engagement only addresses part of the problem.
A laser still needs to find the target, identify it and maintain an accurate aimpoint.
That makes detection increasingly important as drone technology evolves. Some conventional counter-UAS approaches rely heavily on radio-frequency signals to detect, track or disrupt unmanned aircraft. Yet fiber-optic-guided and preprogrammed autonomous systems can operate without maintaining the same type of RF connection, creating challenges for approaches built around detecting or disrupting those communications.
The question, then, becomes straightforward: How do you detect a drone that isn’t broadcasting a signal?
Building the Detection Layer
WRAP(R) is looking to address that challenge through its WrapShield(TM) platform, which the company describes as an autonomous defense and public-safety architecture designed to connect detection, AI-assisted decision support and response.
The platform’s detection layer is anchored by technology from Frenel Imaging, for which WRAP has secured exclusive U.S. and NATO commercialization rights to TPiCore(R) thermal-polarimetric imaging. Rather than depending on a drone’s communications, TPiCore(R) is designed to analyze the polarization of thermal radiation at the pixel level, providing information about an object’s physical characteristics and material composition.
That distinction is important.
A drone can change how it communicates, operate autonomously or use a fiber-optic connection, but its physical characteristics remain part of the target itself. By using a physics-based sensing approach, TPiCore(R) is designed to provide detection and classification capabilities without requiring an RF signal from the aircraft.
For WRAP, that technology provides more than another sensor. It establishes the perception layer needed to connect detection with an appropriate response.
From Detection to Engagement
In August, WRAP announced that laser counter-UAS technology was being added to WrapShield(TM), with Frenel’s passive thermal-polarimetric detection and classification technology serving as the perception and tracking layer for laser effector systems developed by an established directed-energy manufacturer.
The technology being advanced includes mobile and fixed-site fiber-laser configurations designed for repeated counter-UAS engagements. Because directed energy does not require a new physical interceptor for every engagement, the approach is intended to address the economics of sustained drone defense while providing a rapidly deployable response capability.
That integration is arguably the more important part of the story.
A sensor can identify a threat. A laser can engage one. But combining the two creates a broader counter-UAS workflow: detect the threat, classify it, track it, determine an appropriate response and then engage it.
As drone threats become cheaper, more autonomous and increasingly difficult to detect, counter-UAS systems face a growing two-sided challenge: finding threats that may operate outside traditional RF detection methods while responding to them in a cost-effective way.
WrapShield(TM) is being positioned to address both. By combining Frenel’s physics-based thermal-polarimetric sensing with AI-assisted decision support and laser-directed energy, WRAP is developing an integrated platform designed to detect, understand and respond to evolving drone threats, targeting what may be two of the counter-UAS market’s most important challenges: the detection gap and the cost gap.
For more information, visit the company’s website at wrap.com.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to WRAP are available in the company’s newsroom at https://nnw.fm/WRAP
About / Disclaimer
This article was produced by IBN Editorial Staff and is intended for informational purposes only. It is not investment advice and should not be relied upon as the basis for any investment decision. Statements attributed to Wrap Technologies, Inc. or its management, including any forward-looking statements regarding revenue growth, product development, or market opportunities, reflect the company’s views and are subject to risks and uncertainties; actual results may differ materially. Readers should conduct their own due diligence and consult a qualified professional. Additional company information is available at wrap.com.
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