DroneShield’s RadarZero is a Compact, Portable Drone Detector
DroneShield just announced its ‘RadarZero’ drone detecting radar module. It’s light, small, and capable—but do you need it?
While most of us welcome any nearby consumer drone with open arms and enjoy fostering a community of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) enthusiasts, there is a large segment of the population focused on anti-drone technology. The reasons are clear—privacy and surveillance concerns, as well as potential terror threats. For those of us eager to be absolutely certain there are no rogue UAVs in our vicinity, there are options such as the DroneWatcher smartphone app. Of course, that’ll only tell you which authorized, registered flights are in your area, leaving out the potentially nefarious piloting you’re actually interested in. This is where DroneShield’s new RadarZero comes in handy—a portable radar which can detect UAVs from up to .5 miles (750m) away.
According to DroneShield’s press release, the “revolutionary” RadarZero is around the size of a standard paperback book and weighs a mere 1.25 kilograms, making it not only compact but fully portable. Added to that, while RadarZero can be used as a stand-alone drone detector, it also complements the company’s pre-existing DroneSentinel and DroneSentry systems which are intended for a much longer range of UAV detection.
How exactly this new portable radar aids these larger systems is yet unclear (most likely it would be an additional source of data, confirming or not confirming inbound threats with the other radars in play), but what is absolutely certain is that RadarZero is lightweight, portable, detects UAVs from up to half a mile away and acquires 3D data with up to 120 degrees of coverage per unit. Regarding that last point, consumers could use three of these radars and cover an area completely without needing a moving radar unit. Let's take a look at the RadarZero itself, shall we?
Well, it ain't the prettiest, but it doesn't have to be. Regarding its purported functionality, the RadarZero does seem to provide users with a few vital basics. It can be carried around easily and has a pretty long range for its size. It's what's on the inside, that matters, after all. RadarZero is reportedly capable of a "high track acquisition rate," meaning it can detect any new incoming threats in under a second. There's no calibration required, either, which means you could set this up and be prepared in a few minutes.
Essentially, the RadarZero seems like the plug-and-play of anti-drone radars for the consumer market, at this point. While most of us here are solely interested in flying our drones around the park or capturing some cool 4K footage of our dogs running through the snow, there is a definite market for the anti-drone and drone detection market out there. For the consumer base that this appeals to, RadarZero is likely a serious candidate for the type of drone radar model to get.