December, 20218 SYSTEMATIC DETECTION OF DRONES AT AIRPORTS BY ANGELA KIES, HEAD OF UNMANNED AIRCRAFT SYSTEMS AND DRONE DETECTION PROJECT LEAD, DFS DEUTSCHE FLUGSICHERUNGSince August of this year, the German air navigation service provider DFS has been conducting drone tests at Frankfurt and Munich, Germany's two busiest airports. The objective is to determine whether and how reliably state-of-the-art detection systems can actually identify drones.The issue of drones operating in controlled airspace and interfering with air traffic has developed into a major problem, especially when they operate without authorisation in the vicinity of airports. Since 2015, DFS has recorded over 500 drone-related interferences at Germany's 16 international airports. Nearly 360 of them have occurred in the last two years, causing serious disruptions to air traffic and preventing air traffic controllers from allowing aircraft to take-off or land due to safety concerns. This resulted in both flight cancellations and delays, which in turn had severe economic consequences. In early 2020, for example, Germany's busiest airport in Frankfurt was forced to shut down for a total of 4.5 hours due to drones being spotted in the airport's immediate vicinity. According to estimates of Euro control, the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation, each flight cancellation incurs average costs of 17,650 euros, while each delayed flight incurs approximately 6,600 euros per hour. To secure the safe integration of unmanned aircraft systems in the airspace, it is essential to identify not only authorised drones, but also so-called uncooperative drones. Uncooperative drones do not make themselves visible or identifiable and pose a major threat to both manned and unmanned air traffic at and around airports.DFS believes that unmanned aviation has great benefits. When used in rescue services, for example, drones can save lives. However, nobody benefits from flights being cancelled or delayed due to drones being spotted around airports. In 2019, the German Ministry of Transport, therefore, commissioned DFS with systematic drone detection at the country's 16 international airports. One of the requirements defined was for drones to be detected at up to ten nautical miles from runways as a way of preventing any risk of interference with aircraft taking off or on their final approach. However, the specific capabilities of the drone detection technologies currently available are not yet clear. As such, DFS was also initially commissioned to determine what is actually possible in terms of detecting drones in environments as challenging as major international airports. Pushing drone detection systems to their limitsOver the past four months, DFS has been working with its partners Fraport AG and Flughafen München GmbH, the operator of Munich Airport, on a test project with a level of IN MYV EWAngela Kies
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