At Eurosatory 2024, Safran Electronics & Defense announced the launch of its Skyjacker counter-drone solution. Skyjacker effectively addresses the growing threat posed by drones in battlespaces and at sensitive installations. Its strength lies in its unique spoofing capability, which alters a drone's trajectory by simulating the GNSS signals that guide it to its target. Coupled with radar detection and optronic identification, Skyjacker efficiently neutralises both isolated drones and drone swarms in land and naval environments.
Skyjacker replaces the hostile drone's satellite guidance signals with modified signals designed to deceive the drone about its position, thereby disrupting or interrupting its mission. It is particularly well-suited for countering saturation attacks, such as swarming drones, and can defeat isolated drones piloted remotely by an operator, with an effective range of one to ten kilometres (over six miles).
Skyjacker's modular design includes a command and control (C2) unit to manage the entire system, as well as one or more spoofing transmitters. It can be paired with a wide array of sensors, such as optronic sights, radars, and radiofrequency detectors, as well as lasers, communication jammers, and other effectors. Skyjacker can be deployed as a mobile unit or integrated with existing surveillance and fire control systems on land vehicles or naval vessels.
To deliver an initial mobile version of Skyjacker, Safran Electronics & Defense teamed up with Hologarde, which designed the Bassalt anti-drone system for the French Air and Space Force to protect major events such as the Paris Olympic Games, G7 summit and Bastille Day parade. Safran Electronics & Defense and Hologarde demonstrated Skyjacker's effectiveness at the Coubertin LAD II exercise, organised by the Air and Space Force's Air Defence and Air Operations Command (CDAOA) at Air Base 107 in Vélizy-Villacoublay, near Paris, in March 2024.
