What is a Dark Drone?

Drone disruptions at critical infrastructure sites have been identified by CISA’s Interagency Security Committee as a rising concern. Security professionals with expertise in critical infrastructure protection are now evaluating risk and exploring technology that stretches perimeter situational awareness to the air domain. Progressive security professionals consider it necessary to develop solutions that will protect today and future-proof sites as technology and tactics evolve. “Dark drones” are one of these evolutions. But what is a “dark drone”? 

DJI Solutions and Market Shifts

In the years following broad consumer accessibility, drones became a go-to tool for criminal activities including reconnaissance, surveillance, operations disruption, corporate espionage, contraband exchange and more.  When sites began to recognize the security impact of drones, they turned to the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) of virtually all drones – DJI, based in China. DJI offered a system whereby the software updates provided by the OEM to the customers were matched to a radio frequency (RF) platform, Aeroscope, that could identify, deter, or defeat any specific DJI drone detected by the platform. When DJI controlled both supply (drones) and security (Aeroscope), it could offer a “walled garden” environment that was attractive to policing and security entities.  

Apart from a single manufacturer ever being able to consistently hold dominant market share, there are current activities underway in the U.S. Congress to effectively ban all Chinese drone technology from domestic markets. Similar considerations are underway in other western countries. In addition, Congress has funded a Department of Defense program, Replicator, which is actively jumpstarting domestic suppliers of underwater, surface, ground, and air uncrewed vehicles. In just a few years from now, the domestic US market will be a hodgepodge of domestic suppliers and handmade hobbyists – and virtually no new Chinese volumes added.  

Challenges and Emerging Threats in RF Sensor Market

Complicating the RF sensor market further, the entire principle of only using unlicensed spectrum for communication between drone and controller is under considerable pressure. Unlicensed spectrum is like Bluetooth or Wi-Fi: every device can be discoverable by every other device. Just as you can turn to an App store and find an app that scans for Wi-Fi signals in your area, so an RF sensor can scan a much wider area for these signals between drone and controller. But just as you can hide your Wi-Fi name in a setup menu, you can hide or obscure your drone communications. There are also easy techniques found on YouTube for hiding, obscuring, or shielding a drone from RF sensors. And, if these were not enough reasons to have more than just RF in the sensor array, we are on the cusp of Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), like Verizon and Vodafone, offering subscription services that provides the pilot with SIM cards that send drone communications through licensed networks into which no organization has the authorization to search.  

Most importantly, if some individual or entity is intent on using drones for nefarious purposes, they will know all of the above as well as anyone, and will take actions that require more than a single line of defense. For clarity, RF sensors are essential components of a robust counter-drone security deployment. Most aerial intruders will be security nuisances using unmodified commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) drones that will be detectable by RF sensors – this is excellent value for a security department. But to rely on RF or any single sensor as an answer to the drone threat is to not understand the drone problem at all.  

Understanding "Dark" and "Silent" Drones

In a nutshell, “dark” and “silent” drones cannot be detected by RF sensors because: 

• • RF sensor is not equipped to detect the drone and/or

  • RF sensor fails to detect drone (all sensors will have some failure; another reason for multi-sensor solutions) 

  • The drone is actively (& successfully) hiding its presence from RF sensors 

  • The drone uses licensed spectrum (4G/5G) for communications 

  • The drone has no RF communications (flies by GPS or optical waypoint) 

  • The pilot is intent on crime/harm