Winning the Counter-UAS Detection Battle: Advanced SDR Solutions for Evolving Drone Threats
WhitepaperFebruary 05, 2026
The proliferation of small, low-cost uncrewed aerial systems (UASs) has transformed the threat landscape for military and civilian infrastructure worldwide.
From the lessons learned in Ukraine to emerging threats at critical facilities like airports, the challenge of detecting and neutralizing small drones operating in complex RF environments has become increasingly complex. Unlike traditional air-defense systems designed for larger aircraft, counter-UAS (C-UAS) operations require sophisticated RF detection capabilities that can identify “needles in a haystack” or individual threatening drones amid dense civilian RF backgrounds cluttered with Wi-Fi access points, cellphones, and broadcast towers.
This whitepaper examines how software-defined radio (SDR) technology enables spectrum dominance in C-UAS operations and how new applications—from 2-watt ultracompact systems to 8-channel rackmount platforms—provide the technological foundation for next-generation C-UAS capabilities.
