helping operators distinguish authorised activity from potential incursions. RF detectors installed around an airport can give operators a much clearer picture of unauthorised activity and emerging threats. But when a bad actor with no RF signal infiltrates sensitive zones, the response demands more than just an unwelcome letter from the regulator. “It’s one thing to be able to see a
drone,” says Lippett, “but it’s another to know what to do about it. We don't have legal ways of mitigating that, and if you have the technology, such as cyber takeover or net capture system, there is the question of how these can be operated without the appropriate legal framework to enable that?” Airports rely on police, security services and regulators to respond to incidents, while responsibility is also divided internally. “It's not really the CEO's job or the business continuity people who have ultimate responsibility for this. It is the board of directors who determine
22 Advance | Autumn 2026
whether it’s a prudent business decision to spend money on complex counter- UAS systems,” adds Daniels. Misidentification can also have wider consequences. Steve Sutton, managing director of Flyby Guys, points to a reported sighting that temporarily closed Copenhagen Airport before being determined not to be a drone. “Public perceptions of drones are being subtly changed by this sort of activity,” he said. It would be easy to conclude that not much has changed since the Gatwick 2018 incident, which lit the touchpaper behind the rogue drone airport issue in the UK and beyond. But that is not true. “As an airport group, we believe
that our awareness of drone incursions is significantly improved since then,” says Murphy. “And drones have gone from being quite niche to far more commonplace, and there is an increased understanding of how they should be used.” But there remains within the UK airport community a concern that the
second challenge – identifying the personnel who can bring down a drone at an airport flown by a bad actor with access to technology from the Ukrainian battlefield – may only be resolved once it has already happened.
The airport toolkit Using new radio frequency detectors linked to a database of drone characteristics, airports can track unauthorised drone flights in the vicinity, log the drone types and serial numbers and even identify the operator’s position, providing forensic evidence for prosecutions. New artificial intelligence tools can also help the airport operator very quickly categorise likely “intent”. Is the drone taking off from a private garden or a public space? Is it likely to be carrying a payload? Does its flight profile and level of electronic sophistication indicate a hobbyist or a professional operator? In the military world, a layered C-UAS system comprises acoustic, thermal,
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AEROSPACE
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