Team Guardian Counter commercial UAV threats

Team Guardian Protection against commercial off the shelf dronesNumber of Stakeholders Spoken to: 15Total Number of Stakeholders Spoken to: 72

Activities last week:A day in the life of a FOB captain, lieutenant and private on guard towerDeepening of technical and competitive analysisFunding structureOrganization of Asymmetric Warfare Group

Alon Fabian

Han Markus

Communication / Computer Science / Veteran

Product / Veteran / Chemistry

Embedded systems / Electrical

Engineering

Systems Engineering / Mechatronics

Project: Countering Asymmetric Drone ActivitiesSponsor: U.S. Army Asymmetric Warfare Group (AWG)Military Liaisons: John Cogbill and Scott Maytan

Interview dashboard

Week 5 Total to date

Users 3 14

Buyers 7 21

Experts 5 33

Total 15 72

Engineering Activities Recap

Guardian: Customer DiscoveryHypothesis:• Classification is a major capability gap• No Existing system has integrated detection, classification, countermeasure and exploiting

effectively• Current radar and camera system in the military is not tuned to detect commercial droneExperiments:• Interviews with private, lieutenant, captain level in FOBs (Detail Later)• Interviews with technical experts• Interviews with AWG leadership on funding

Results:• Capability gaps can be divided to three:

• Taking down next generation drones• Identification type of threat (reconnaissance, suicide, swarm)• Tracing back to operator

• Understanding AWG organizational structure and funding sources (Detail Later)• Not focusing on GNSS jamming

Actions:• Focus on four potential solutions: directional EMP, hacking, hunter-drone and sensor

fusing• Enroll to Stanford UAV 101• Talk to Airforce about counter-drone protocol

A day in the life of a lieutenant in FOB (COP)

Duty

Supervise All Positions

Make High Level Order / Link to upper Level

Range(Landmark) Card

Daily Maintenance/ Arrange Life Support

Missions Outside of a FOB

Battle Drill Training/ Rehearsal

Reaction to unidentified

vehicle approaching

Hold Sign Warning Shot Pointing gun at the vehicle Shoot at vehicle

Reaction to Motar attack

Evacuate everyone into

shield

Trace the Source/ Launch countering

Motar

Analogy: Reconnaissance Drone

Analogy: Suicide Drone

Want: The ability to shoot down a drone accurately The ability to jam the signal in the drone, to cut down the video

and GNSS location The ability to catch a drone Counter swarm of drones Anything which can buy them more time for making a decision

Do not want: Single layered, non-flexible solution

Concerns: What is the current decision time they can have regarding drones

attack? How far can they detect the drone? What is the range of the countermeasure? Enemies are very adaptive

Factors that can interfere a decision: Level of threats Position of the FOB (urban or remote) Overall safety level of the area

Trace the Source/Send out counter

squad

Wake Up

Operation Update

Shift Change/ Spot Check

Check Food Supply

Check Radar/Camera

Scheduled Battle Drill Rehearsal (Non-daily)

Communication Check

Information update

Plan for other missions

FOB Beneficiary analysis (Commander Level)

A day in the life of a private in FOB (COP)

Duty

Camp Protection

Low Rank Duties

Section Protection

1st Level Defense

Warning the rest when sees threats

Battle Drill Training/ Rehearsal/ Operation

Want: Effective weapon (eg. Confetti gun) Easy to use, low level training A detailed battle drill for drones

Do not want: Single layered, non-flexible solution

Concerns: How far can they detect the drone? What is the range of the countermeasure? May need more than one person to operate, one person

shooting confetti gun, the other shoot any drone that pass through

Factors that can interfere a decision: Level of Training/ Experience Position of the FOB (urban or remote) Overall safety level of the area Whether the threat is documented in the battle drill Length of guard / Tiredness

Wake Up

Make Shift

4 – 12 hrs Shift

Battle Drill Training

Report Threats

FOB Beneficiary analysis (Private Level)

End of Shift

Product Deployment Workflow (Insight from Battle Drone Defender) - AWG

Identify capability gap (“never get

caught by surprise”)

Research on bridging gap

(experiments, experts)

DemoMVP

(list of features bridging gap)

Recommendation to REF (RD&E money)

Contract (private industry)

Deployment (provide training and

doctrines for operating new equipment)

Emphasize is on rapid solution:less than 2-years from demo to deployment Typically does not get into

acquisition cycle

Company’s Own Research Fund

Budget approved

through REF

Organizational structure

Guardian: Mission Model Canvas

Requirements EngineeringUnderstanding of FOB scenarios and capability gaps - Concept definitionSystem design- System and components engineering- Reverse engineering on commercial drones

- U.S. Army Asymmetric Warfare Group

- Ground forces

- Commercial drone manufacturers (e.g. DJI)

- Suppliers of DIY drone kits

- Other agencies working on the same problem:

- JIDA

- DHS

- CTTSO

FOBs: Lieutenant and Captain at FOB responsible for protection

FOBs: (1)● Lieutenant/Captain in

charge on FOB protection (Kevin, Dave, Rick)

● Private at guard tower (front line) (Alon)

● Technician in Control Center (?)

Private at guard tower, who is potentially young, inexperienced and not trained to use complex equipment

Air Force personnel in control center surveilling the air space (2)

Program Manager, concept generator, requirement writer in U.S Army Asymmetric Warfare Group (Steve) (3)

- Effective countering regardless of specific drone- Classify and counter reconnaissance- Bring drone down without crashing- Provide modular solution to escalate the situation proportionally to the threat (sequential)- Gain intelligence while mitigating threat- Scalability for swarms- Low training need, easy to use- Symmetric solution: costs of countering is symmetric to cost of attack- Geolocalizing source of attack

- Provide counter-drone capabilities to FOBs within 2 years-Provide proof of concept-Receive continuous support from sponsors and potential users/buyers

- Demonstration day in Florida (mid June)- Testing in AWG- Modification (based on testing results)

After initial contract:- Limited User Assessment- Training field operators by AWG- Pilot project with one forward operating base (FOB)-Generate iterative MVPs with FOB, potential funders and buyers- Test and modify MVP and produce versioned product- Potentially partner with existing contractors and integrate our product into existing systems

Fixed:

Variable- Purchase equipment for testing including drones(DJI + Micro)- Purchase jamming equipment and power attenuators

- Access to relevant ground forces to define relevant scenarios- U.S. Army Asymmetric Warfare Group to define relevant set of capabilities- Other agencies working on the same problem- Hardware to test

- Asymmetric Warfare Group using RDT&E (from REF): single contract from concept to deployment (initial funding - maximum 2-years)

- Need implementation by ground forces/ Help us to iterate, test and modify our product- Need certification from AWG before deploying product

Beneficiaries

Mission AchievementMission Budget/Costs

Buy-In/Support

Deployment

Value PropositionKey Activities

Key Resources

Key Partners

Value Proposition Canvas

Products & Services

- Countering with basic training- Countering regardless of specific

drone- Layered solution, countering

multiple threats posted by commercial drones

Customer Jobs

Guard FOBProtect FOB:

frontline protection

responsible on a specific section

- Threats( Reconnaisse, weaponized, swarms…)- No easy way to take down next gen UAVs- No existing solution tailored for off-the-shelf drone threat

Private in guard tower

Gains

Pains

Gain Creators

Pain Relievers

- Can react to threat with easy to use equipment - Can act rapidly and efficiently

- Reduce mission irritation from drones- Mitigate threat- Minimal training, easy to use

- Drone counter measure- Drone Classification

Value Proposition Canvas

Products & Services

-Countering without crashing

- Highly autonomous system

-Classification capability- Fast reaction period

Customer Jobs

Lead missionProtect FOB

- Surveillance- Unresolved threat

Lieutenant/Captain

Gains

Pains

Gain Creators

Pain Relievers

- Focus on mission without worrying about surveillance, or by spending less time on threats posed by commercial drones- Capturing the drone without crashing provides the opportunity to exploit the drone and trace back to origin for further mission

- Reduce mission irritation from drones- Mitigate threat

- Drone counter measure- Drone Classification

Value Proposition Canvas

Products & Services

Gain capability:1. Countering drone without crashing and potentially exploiting data from it2. Scalability: countering swarm of drones3. Classification of drone threats4. Solution can be deployed within 2 years

Customer Jobs

Create capabilities for US Army

Bridge capability gaps in

asymmetric warfare against

for US forces- Unresolved emerging threat

Asymmetric warfare group(Program

Manager/Concept Generator/Requirement

Writer…)Gains

Pains

Gain Creators

Pain Relievers

- New adequate capability- Provide counter-drone capability to US forces

-Fill in capability gaps between current technologies-Mitigate threat

- Drone counter measure- Drone classification

Asymmetric Warfare Group within DoDUnited States Army Forces Command

OPERATIONAL

Regions

Special forces

Space and missile defense

command / Strategy Cyber

Surface deployment and

distribution command

Training & Doctrine

DESIGN & BUILD

Training & Doctrine

LOGISTICS