An interceptor drone was integrated into the Polish anti-drone system SKYctrl

The Polish company Advanced Protection Systems has developed a high-speed drone interceptor integrated into the SKYctrl anti-drone system.

Dariusz Wichniarek, Vice President of Business Development, shared this with Militarnyi on the sidelines of the Defence24Days security conference.

This is the Polish SKYctrl system, which is designed to detect, track, and neutralize unmanned aerial vehicles, combining three-dimensional airspace monitoring radars, as well as acoustic sensors and electronic suppression equipment.

The new development should complement the anti-drone complex by providing it with new methods of kinetic impact on targets, or, in simple terms, their physical destruction.

Such drones are controlled by FIELDctrl radars in combination with video tracking technology. They can operate in groups, exchanging data to distribute targets and neutralize a swarm of drones.

According to the developers, the new interceptor is capable of accelerating from zero to hundreds in less than a second, with a top speed of 180 km/h.

Unlike exclusively military vehicles, these drones have a dual purpose because they do not carry explosives. At its maximum speed, the 1.5-kilogram drone crashes into the target, delivering an impact with an energy of about 2,000 joules.

“Our interceptor drone was originally created to protect critical infrastructure – something kinetic and destructive, but at the same time legal. It won’t completely destroy the conventional Shahed, but it can hit it and prevent it from getting closer to the target,” the company’s representatives note, pointing to footage of successful interceptions of smaller objects.

The drone’s flight range is limited to 1500 meters. The drone is guided in the direction of the target in coordination with the ground-based radars of the system, and then captured at the final stage by an onboard optical camera with machine vision algorithms.

The company believes that the interceptor is a cost-effective addition to other means of neutralizing the SKYctrl complex. This technology will provide users with an effective solution for the protection of territories and critical infrastructure.

It is worth noting that the SKYctrl system and its radars are already being used on the battlefield by the Ukrainian military, whose experience was used in further improvements to the system.

Acoustic sensors from Ukrainian developers have been integrated into the new generation of the system. Read more about this in the article “Polish company APS has integrated Ukrainian acoustic sensors into its anti-drone systems”.