Safety impact of a digitised RF signal broadcast in a complex RF environment (Continuation)

"SteelRock Technologies' (SRT) designs and produces life-saving RF-based countermeasure/counter-UAV systems for the UK and other international customers, however, the regulatory environment surrounding the use of RF-emitting countermeasure equipment (jammers) is complex and restrictive.

The legal framework has not taken into account the emerging threat from nuisance and hostile unmanned aerial vehicles and greatly restricts the testing, development and sale of SteelRock Technologies' (SRT) equipment. In order to address this regulatory / legal challenge, a continued programme of testing and measurement is required a) to establish a robust safety case for SteelRock Technologies' equipment b) to differentiate this technology from analogue jamming systems and c) to support the obtaining of CE marking for the commercial use of this equipment.

The UK taxpayer is directly impacted by the commercial successes supported by this project as SRT will deliver life-saving technologies more widely across the UK, as well as establishing a new market based on the development of next-generation RF equipment and RF-based countermeasure systems.

A safety case has, in part, been established with initial results gathered during a Round 3 mini project in collaboration with the National Physical Laboratory. Continuation of this test programme, undertaking further tests (measurement and analysis of wave form patterns generated by the equipment) in the real-world (non-chamber-based) environment that will enable SRT to present comprehensive data-sets to support a robust safety case, differentiation from other similarly categorised technologies, and the reduced risk of collateral effect when using our technology.

The project will be undertaken in both laboratory and 'real-world' settings, ensuring that base-line data-sets can be compared with the operation of the equipment in an operational setting.

The potential benefits of this project are wide-ranging, from the establishing a safety case for the use of this equipment for life-saving purposes (protecting people and critical national infrastructure) to the creation of a new low-level airspace management market in the UK. Both the safety and economic potential that this project hopes to enable will have a lasting impact on the United Kingdom."