Counter-drone tech dominates Singapore airshow

Singapore hosted its biennial airshow in early February, one of Asia's biggest defense events, where fighter jets and commercial airliners shared space with a flood of uncrewed-aerial-system displays. Roughly 550 organisations were listed as exhibitors, and about a third worked in the UAS business; inside the main hall it was hard to avoid seeing “drone” or “UAS” on a placard.

Recent conflicts, especially the war in Ukraine, have sharpened concern about inexpensive drones carrying out attacks, and last autumn's repeated unidentified drone sightings forced European countries to disrupt hundreds of passenger flights. Exhibitors at the show presented systems aimed at preventing those scenarios, from area jammers to kinetic options.

On offer were radio-frequency jammers ranging from handheld devices to truck-mounted boxes, Israel's Skylock two-handed jamming gun called Skybeam, Saab's truck-mounted "Loke" machine-gun system that aims for "one shot, one kill," and aerodynamic interceptor drones.

Singapore, Singapore