Citadel Defense Co.
The last decade has shown a dramatic increase in the availability and sophistication of consumer drones. Containing technical capabilities previously available only to costly commercial and military customers, several hundred dollars will allow virtually anyone to be airborne quickly. But it has also become just as easy to use the same technology to invade protected airspace, threaten military and law enforcement personnel, invade privacy, or circumvent security[1]. Several technologies to combat the threat are available that range from ballistic (drone nets, weapons), to traditional electronic warfare (high-power signal jamming), to "surgical" methods that minimize impact to existing electronic systems and ground communications. This surgical approach has broad non-military applicability as it reduces the risk of negative collateral impact when compared to other techniques. Broadband jamming can interrupt communications equipment and block GPS signals, interfering with navigation and radar to create additional risk. Kinetic counter-drone technology forces a flying object from the sky, creating a hazard to life and property below. But the surgical approach leverages a characteristic common to most modern drones - "return to home," or RTH, functionality. When the communications/control link is severed, drones are typically programmed to return to their starting point for a controlled landing instead of dropping from the sky or suffering a loss of control.
| File:Citadel logo lg.png | |
| Private | |
| ISIN | 🆔 |
| Industry | Engineering, Defense, Manufacturer |
| Founded 📆 | February 28, 2016 in San Diego, CA |
| Founder 👔 | |
| Headquarters 🏙️ | , San Diego, California , United States |
Area served 🗺️ | Worldwide |
| Products 📟 | Citadel Titan C-UxS Counter-Drone System |
| Members | |
Number of employees | 25 (2019) |
| 🌐 Website | www |
| 📇 Address | |
| 📞 telephone | |
Background
Citadel Defense Company is a US-based engineering, design, and manufacturing firm producing electronic systems to mitigate the threats posed by drones / Unmanned Systems (UxS) Citadel has developed technology[2] that reliably detects, classifies, and defeats drones used to threaten combat troops, critical infrastructure, or conduct information espionage. The technology has been assessed as Technology Readiness Level 9 (TRL 9), as a benchmark to assess the proven effectiveness of equipment utilized in successful mission operations. The system uses Artificial Intelligence-based search and classification methods and electronic counter measures (ECM) to detect and drone controller communications causing the unwanted device to leave the controlled area. The technology is in active use, currently deployed protecting military personnel and government entities. The proprietary detection and tiered mitigation technology provides minimal to no disruption to common communications such as Wi-Fi, BLE or terrestrial/satellite radio equipment.
In February 2018, Citadel secured US $12M in Series A Financing[3] from Lightspeed Venture Partners.
History & technology
Founded in 2016 as a response to the emergence of drone threats to troops, military facilities, sensitive locations and civil infrastructure[4], Citadel Defense initially began as a proof-of-concept project.[5] The engineers wanted to develop a man-packable, freestanding fully automatic system to consistently block the communications between drone and controller while minimizing impact to surrounding RF devices. A common technical approach was traditional brute force Electronic Warfare (EW) wide-band RF jammers, typically expensive and too large for rapid deployment, utilizing cold war era technology to block all nearby communications equipment in the hope of catching drone controllers in the same RF net. Other systems presented as portable were unwieldy and required dedicated vehicles.[6] Scaled-down, portable versions of the same technology required operators to maintain aim and maintain skyward vigilance,[7] neither of which is as practical for modern warfighters performing multiple tasks in increasingly complex operating theaters. More advanced technical approaches became available, utilizing RF signal pattern detection and recognition to intelligently defeat rogue drones. But these generally required calibration, extensive training, and manual SIGINT interpretation. Absent from the market was a "set-and-forget" solution that was portable, effective against the vast majority of control protocols, and didn't block/jam all nearby communications. Further, the goal system wouldn't meet the majority of use cases if it wasn't simultaneously capable of mobile, man-packable and dismounted use.
Utilizing advancements in the field of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, combined with new ultra-broadband Software Defined Radios, the engineering team developed a system that showed significant promise. Based on this early success, a partnership was formed with the US DoD to perform field testing in real-world scenarios, gaining insight and feedback from operators in the field. As a result, Citadel was able to secure funding to further refine and develop the technology to create a sub-20 lb system that was again deployed for field testing and evaluation. Now in its 3rd iteration, the Titan system mitigates unwanted drones[8] with minimal collateral impact at a fraction of the size and expense of systems utilizing similar mitigation technologies.
As the system has evolved, refinements have included a user interface to monitor and log activity, identify drone type and control protocol, change spectral impact, and "whitelist" drones by type. In June of 2019 a 433/915 MHz and 1.2 GHz extended frequency kit was made available, providing additional bands of mitigation capability in addition to standard 2.4/5.8 GHz control frequencies. The change can be made by end users via the user interface and an antenna swap - no reprogramming is necessary.
The system has been awarded several Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contracts to leverage the technology across the US Department of Defense and encourage transfer of new technology through commercialization.
Customers
- United States Dept. of Defense Force Protection
- United States Navy
- United States Dept. of Homeland Security
Awards and recognition
- Citadel Defense's Drone Countermeasure Technology was selected for the Elite U.S. Air Force Innovation Development Program[9] at AFWERX in June 2018
- Citadel Defense Co. Cited as a Top Anti-Drone Technology Company to Watch[10] in May 2018
- In February of 2018, Citadel was honored with Connect San Diego's Most Innovative Product (MIP) Award[11]
References
- ↑ "5 Unstoppable Drone Security Threats You Should Be Aware Of". MakeUseOf. Retrieved 2019-06-28.
- ↑ Reuter, Elise. "Connect Names 7 'Most Innovative' Products". San Diego Business Journal. SDBJ. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
- ↑ "Citadel, World-Leading Drone Defense Company, Closes $12 Million Series A Investment From Lightspeed Venture Partners". VentureBeat. 2018-02-27. Retrieved 2019-02-22.
- ↑ Farmbrough, Heather. "Heathrow and Gatwick To Invest Millions In Anti-Drone Equipment". Forbes. Retrieved 2019-06-13.
- ↑ Dowling, Savannah (2018-02-21). "21 Early-Stage Drone Companies To Watch Out For (Literally)". Crunchbase News. Retrieved 2019-06-13.
- ↑ "New Portable Counter-UAV System Detects and Jams Drones". Unmanned Systems Technology. 2017-01-09. Retrieved 2019-06-13.
- ↑ "Chinese police debut new anti-drone gun that shoots illegal UAVs from the sky". RT International. Retrieved 2019-06-13.
- ↑ "Dropping Dangerous Drones Out Of The Sky". KGTV. 2018-02-24. Retrieved 2019-02-22.
- ↑ Defense, Citadel. "Citadel Defense's Drone Countermeasure Technology Selected for Elite U.S. Air Force Innovation Development Program at AFWERX". www.prnewswire.com. Retrieved 2019-02-22.
- ↑ "14 Anti Drone Technology Startups to Watch". Nanalyze. 2018-05-17. Retrieved 2019-02-22.
- ↑ "CONNECT Announces Winners of 2018 Most Innovative New Product Awards". www.connect.org. Retrieved 2019-02-22.
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