High-tech radar used in Ukraine-Russia war to be deployed to crack drone mystery

State-of-the-art drone-hunting technology being used on the battlefield in Ukraine could soon be deployed to crack the mystery behind a spate of unmanned flying objects purportedly spotted in the skies over New Jersey, New York and other Northeast cities, experts said.

New York Sen. Chuck Schumer and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul have asked the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to deploy the Robin Radar System to assist investigators in getting to the bottom of who is behind the alleged drones that residents and local and state officials say have been flying over communities at night since mid-November.

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“I want to see a flock of Robin-like technology systems deployed across the New York city metropolitan area so we need the Department of Homeland Security to spring into action,” Schumer said in a speech on the Senate floor on Monday.

Drone sightings have also been reported in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Ohio. The Boston Police Department said Sunday that two men were arrested Saturday night after they allegedly flew a drone “dangerously close to Logan International Airport.”

What is the Robin Radar System?

Kris Brost, general director of Robin Radar USA Inc., whose parent company is in the Netherlands, told ABC News that the development of his firm’s Iris drone detection radar system evolved from its innovation in creating radar to detect flocks of birds near airports to prevent them from striking aircraft.

Since 2014, the company has pivoted to developing drone-detecting technology to not only locate drones – officially designated unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) – but to “classify small moving objects, whether they be drones, rotary, fixed-wing or if you just want to filter them out because you don’t want to see birds or large crickets,” Brost said.

Brost said the Robin radar can discern drones from manned-operated aircraft, track their flying patterns in real time and beam data back to a laptop computer with a 360-degree, 3D view of the airspace in which the object is flying.

“Basically what a radar does is a radar bounces radio waves off of objects,” said Brost, adding that the Robin radar can also read a drone’s radio frequency: “There’s a sophisticated term called ‘radar cross section’ and that really comes down to what is that material made of, how fast is it moving, what altitude it’s at, etc.”

Brost said the radar system has a range of about 3.1 miles and can detect objects flying at an altitude of two to three kilometers, roughly between one and two miles.

When combined with other technologies, Brost said the radar system can help investigators obtain a drone’s remote identification. Brost warned, however, that operators are able to modify their drones in order to avoid detection, including removing the remote ID broadcast module.

“Even if someone is trying to skirt the system, we’ll be able to detect them,” Brost said. “We won’t tell you where the person is flying from, but we’ll be able to help you track them.”

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Brost said another advantage of the company’s Robin system is that it’s lightweight and mobile: “it can be installed on a police cruiser or whatever you need to and be used on the move.”

One thing his company’s radar system can’t do, however, is determine whether a drone has been weaponized.

“We don’t necessarily look at payload,” Brost said.

Brost said that at the request of New Jersey authorities, his company sent a team to the state on Friday to assess how to best deploy the Robin radar in the investigation of the numerous alleged nighttime drone sightings.

Asked if DHS has contacted his company, Brost could only say he is working with the federal government.

The FBI and DHS have deployed infrared cameras and drone detection technology to ensure that the purported drones flying over the New Jersey and New York area aren’t harmful, according to a law enforcement source. Dozens of agencies have been out daily to find answers and track down any operators acting “illegally or with nefarious intent,” the FBI said recently.

The agencies are also looking at social media and other photos to determine what exactly is in the photos. Most of the photos and video depict manned aircraft, according to a law enforcement source.

Deployed in Ukraine

The Robin Radar System has been used in the Ukraine-Russia war to aid Ukrainian military forces in locating incoming Russian weaponized drones, Brost told ABC News.

“The war in the Ukraine was really a turning point for our company based on the compelling needs they have and certainly some of the data that we’ve been able to collect and implement based on that environment has been specular,” Brost said. “Having talked to some of the battlefield commanders, it’s pretty compelling how important of a technology that it is.”

While on the battlefield, Ukrainian forces have shot the Russian drones out of the sky, Brost said.

“Here in the states, law enforcement’s hands are very tied because they can’t use anything to take a drone out of the sky even if they find it’s nefarious or think it’s nefarious,” Brost said.

The New Jersey State Police and FBI field office in Newark issued an advisory Monday asking the public not to take matters into their own hands. In a statement, authorities warned of “an increase in pilots of manned aircraft being hit in the eyes with lasers because people on the ground think they see an Unmanned Aircraft Systems. There is also a concern with people possibly firing weapons at what they believe to be a UAS but could be a manned aircraft.”

“Public hysteria”

The FBI has received more than 5,000 tips in the last few weeks about drone sightings in New Jersey and other states, said the statement issued jointly on Monday by DHS, the FBI, the FAA and the Department of Defense. Those tips have resulted in about 100 leads but, so far, the investigation has not found “anything anomalous,” nor do the drone sightings present a national security or public safety risk, the federal officials.

An assessment of the purported drone sightings, according to the joint statement, found that they reflect combined sightings of lawful commercial drones, hobbyist drones and law enforcement drones, as well as manned fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and stars mistakenly reported as drones.

“My suspicion is this is a situation that has become one where there’s public hysteria that’s largely due to the fact that the government did not clearly explain what was going on at first and hasn’t differentiated and been as open and gotten in front of the story,” said Stacie Pettyjohn, director of the defense program at the Center for a New American Security, a Washington D.C. think tank.

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Brost said he has examined images of drones spotted flying over New Jersey.

“I have seen pictures where I’ve said, ‘Man, that looks like a dead ringer for an aircraft.'” Brost said. “But I have seen some pretty compelling videos on something that just looks unexplainable.”