This May France’s KEAS announced it had launched digital versions of its MinKa Counter Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle (CUAV) system and BLOCKio cellphone jammer. Reports said that the digital MinKa-750D was demonstrated to French government officials outside Paris.
The MinKa-750D is a vehicle-mounted CUAV system. During the demonstrations the equipment showed it could engage UAVs at up to 0.5 nautical miles/nm (one kilometre) and at between zero and 428 feet/ft (128 metres/m) altitude. Jamming was effective against fast- and slow-moving aircraft. The MinKa-750D can protect moving convoys or static installations. The jammer works across seven frequency bands. Each of these can transmit 50 watts/W of power.
David Morio, KEAS’ chair and chief executive officer told Armada that demonstrations performed in support of their undisclosed customer showed the MinKa-750D to be effective at ranges above 0.5nm. He said these ranges could be further still if the aircraft is in the jammer’s line-of-sight. While the MinKa-750D is effective against civilian UAV control frequencies of 2.4 gigahertz/GHz and 5.8GHz it does not cause interference to friendly systems: “We can jam precisely the targeted wavebands without interfering with contiguous bands reserved for the police or military.” Alternatively, he said the system “can jam the full spectrum” if needed.
Mr. Morio said that jamming can be performed against “any possible wavebands or frequencies between 400 megahertz and six gigahertz you can possibly dream of.” He added that an analogue system, the MinKa-715, is already installed protecting 13 undisclosed prisons against UAVs: “We have quite a few business leads ongoing mostly abroad. We should close some deals by this coming summer.”BLOCKio-950
KEAS’ demonstration outside Paris also included the BLOCKio-950 cellphone jammer. The company says this product has nine jamming bands. 50W of jamming can be transmitted on each of these. Targeted frequencies include ultra high frequencies of 300 megahertz to three gigahertz. These encompass standard second, third, fourth and fifth generation cellphone protocols, plus Bluetooth, wifi and satellite communications. Friendly systems using these frequencies can be left undisturbed. Mr. Morio says the BLOCKio-950’s effective range is up to 40m (130ft) in an urban environment. Like the MinKa-750D interest in the BLOCKio-950 has been forthcoming in the prisons sector. Production is ongoing, with the first units expected to be installed in prisons in early July. By Dr. Thomas Withington, Armada International
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