UAS Threats and Counter-Measures:

the NATO Framework

23 September 2020
Dr. Claudio Palestini
Emerging Security Challenges
NATO

Emerging Security Challenges Division

Counter Terrorism Section

 Two recent events widely covered by the press

Gatwick Airport drone incident Abqaiq–Khurais (Saudi Arabia) attack

19-21 December 2018 14 September 2019

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 NATO UAS Definition

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 C-UAS: the problem statement (1)
• UAS: a disruptive and dynamic technological ecosystem
• Uncontrolled developments
• While in the past developments in UAS technology were driven by
the military, today most innovation is occurring in the civilian realm
• Commercial UAS technology mainly driven by non-NATO nations
• Different scale of pace between UAS technology vs C-UAS
capability development
• Commercial UAS technology is following a very fast pace
• Difficult to cope in terms of capability development speed and long-
duration procurements
• UAS provides capabilities to potential adversaries once
limited to near-peer competitors
• Air supremacy / superiority is challenged

Pictures from various sources from the web

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 C-UAS: the problem statement (2)
• Need for coordination
• To minimize collateral damages and blue on blue effects
• A technological problem…
• Working towards the “2nd generation” C-UAS systems
• Multi-domain solutions needed
• Need for technical interoperability and standardization
• Technology is developed both in the military and civilian domain
• but not only…
• Operational interoperability also needed
• Not only technology: DOTMLPFI
• Civ-Mil cooperation
• In many scenarios, a whole of government approach is needed
• Force protection vs Air defence
• Responsibilities are shared among different communities
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 A drone arms race
Frequency Hopping
Electronic Warfare
5G
Air Defence
Internet of Things
Non Lethal
Space
Spoofing
Autonomy

Directed Energy Artificial Intelligence

High Energy Lasers Swarming

Drone on drone Multi-modal drones

Collision avoidance
Cyber attacks
Facial recognition
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 Democratization of armaments

“The heroes have to win every time.

The villain only has to win once.”

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Counter Terrorism Section

 Urban Air Mobility is coming

How to recognize the

malicious drone from the
legitimate ones?

2019: about 30,000 commercial flights

over Europe in 24 hours

2035: about 20,000 flights, over a single Picture from the web: https://nari.arc.nasa.gov/uamgc

(big) city, in 1 hour

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Brussels Summit Declaration Issued by the Heads of State and Government participating in the
meeting of the North Atlantic Council in Brussels 11-12 July 2018

• “We also face new threats from

cruise missiles and the
proliferation of related technology
as well as from new challenges,
such as unmanned aerial vehicles,
and will monitor developments
that could affect Alliance security.”

• “We will continue to improve our

capabilities and technologies,
including to defend against
improvised explosive devices and
chemical, biological, radiological,
and nuclear (CBRN) threats, and to
counter terrorist misuse of
technology.

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 Practical Framework for Countering UAS

 NATO Defence Ministers endorsed in February 2019 a Practical Framework for Countering Class I
with the objective of:
 Supporting Allies in the development and deployment of capabilities for force protection
 Boosting security at home
 Bringing coherence to NATO’s efforts
 A NATO C-UAS Working Group has been established
 Initial priority areas for the first 24 months:
 Building a Counter UAS community
 Policy review
 Development of standards
 Research & Development & Operation efforts

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 NATO C-UAS Working Group
 A dynamic forum with a short work-cycle to cope with a very rapidly evolving threat
 Six plenary meetings held since March 2019
 Other workshops held on specific topics
 2 Discovery Experiment Workshops organized by NATO ACT

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 Main outcomes from June 2019 to September 2020
 Building the C-UAS Community
 Engagement inside NATO with different communities (Armaments, Air Defence, C-IED, UAS, Electronic
Warfare, Non-Lethal Capabilities, Joint ISR etc.)
 Engagement with other international organizations on-going (EU, UN, INTERPOL, GCTF)
 Involvement of partners as appropriate
 Engagement with industry, academia, etc.

 Policy, Concepts, Doctrine, Tactics, Techniques and Procedures

 Preliminary steps towards Operational Interoperability:

NATO UAS Technical Exploitation Lexicon

NATO Countering Class I Unmanned Aircraft Systems (C-UAS) Handbook

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 Main outcomes from June 2019 to September 2020

UAS THREAT PROTECTION MODEL

PREVENT SITUATIONAL AWARENESS RESPOND POST EVENT ACTIONS

Laws, regulations Detect Defeat Recover

Geo-fencing Track Deter Exploit

Certification Classify Destroy Assess

Warning signs Identify Capture

Intelligence C-UAS Core System Functions

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 Main outcomes from June 2019 to September 2020
 Development of standards
 A NATO C-UAS Industry day held on 27th of November in NATO HQ: more than 90
participants attending
 NATO C-UAS Technical Standardization Sub-group open to industry established, to
identify / select / define appropriate standards
 Three work strands:
• Development of a NATO Reference Architecture
• C-UAS Data Exchange Format
• Technical Interoperability Exercise

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 Main outcomes from June 2019 to September 2020
 Encourage Research, Development and Operation efforts

 NATO Defence Against Terrorism Programme Of Work (DAT POW) has supported in the last years a
number of exercises and activities

 A NIAG study launched on “Low-Collateral Damage C-sUAS Effectors Other Than Jammers”

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 Main outcomes from June 2019 to September 2020
 Planned exercises
 A calendar of NATO + national or multi-national exercises established for 2020 and 2021

• NNTEX20-C (preparatory event) in Belgium in September 2020

• C-UAS vignette in SOF exercise in September 2020
• NCIA data collection in September / October 2020
• German police C-UAS exercise in May / June 2021
• NEMO 2021 C-UAS vignette (maritime)
• NNTEX21-C in Italy in October 2021
• Thor’s Hammer 2021 in Sweden
• NCIA Technical Interoperability Exercise 2021 / 2022
• Drone Single Local Air Picture demo in 2021 / 2022 in the United Kingdom

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 NATO Non-Lethal Technology Exercise Counter-UAS
 Started in 2016 with Concept Development Assessment Game (CDAG)
 In 2017, a Table Top Exercise (TTX)
 In December 2018, a Technological Demonstration at Marine Corps Base,
Quantico, Virginia, US

 A field-based introduction to C-UAS technologies with live demonstrations

of non-lethal capabilities employed to defeat small UAS while minimizing
collateral damage in the vicinity of the engagement
– Five C-UAS technologies
– Including ECM (portable, vehicle mounted, static)
– Four real-world scenarios, including single and multiple threat
vignettes
– Almost 100 engagements

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 NATO Non-Lethal Technology Exercise Counter-UAS
Comparative Analysis of Lethal / Low-Collateral
Damage Effectors against LSS UAV

Belgium Denmark Germany Italy Spain Sweden* Switzerland*

Chair : Belgium
Vice chair : United Kingdom
Participating nations

2019 2020 2021

Preparation NNTEX21-C
Preparation Baseline Cap DV Day

United Kingdom United States The Netherlands NATO ESC

NATO ACT

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 NATO Non-Lethal Technology Exercise Counter-UAS
 Effectors
 Nine technologies to be assessed, including Directed Energy Weapons

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 NATO Non-Lethal Technology Exercise Counter-UAS

control

No critical destruction of drone, unable to complete mission, diverted to chosen location

Controlled downing but able to perform technical exploitation
Uncontrolled downing, able to perform technical exploitation
Uncontrolled downing, not able to perform technical exploitation
Returned to operator / base
Drone idled in flight
Complete miss / drone unhampered

effectiveness

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 NATO Non-Lethal Technology Exercise Counter-UAS

15km

180°

21
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 Looking forward

 Main focus for next months:

 Awareness / exchange of information
 Standardization activities
 Training
 Data collection
 Testing and Exercises
 Integration within the full Air Defence environment
 Explore links between UTM / C-UAS

Emerging Security Challenges Division

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 Thank you

Claudio Palestini
palestini.claudio@hq.nato.int

Emerging Security Challenges Division

NATO International Staff

Emerging Security Challenges Division

Counter Terrorism Section