I had the opportunity to discuss with Kraettli Epperson, CEO of Vigilant Aerospace Systems, their latest contract with the US Air Force and we extended the discussion to the recent Executive Orders, and the threat posed by drones, with a perspective on the Ukrainian attack on Russian airbases known as “Operation Spiderweb”.
Detect-and-avoid technology for the US military
Vigilant Aerospace has been added by the US Air Force to the Enterprise-Wide Agile Acquisition Contract (EWAAC), which allows the US Air Force or any branch of the US military to place orders directly, without needing an additional contract. The company is even qualified as a “sole source provider” for multi-sensor detect-and-avoid airspace management software for certain military buyers, which means that buyers don’t have to go via a complicated and time-consuming solicitation process.
The technology that is relevant in this context is Vigilant’s FlightHorizon PILOT product, which is a standards-compliant on-board detect-and-avoid system. In this context, “on-board” refers to the sensors used to detect other aircraft, be they manned or unmanned. Vigilant uses information from the autopilot, from ADS-B in, and from radar(s) on board the drone to build an image of traffic in the vicinity – the “detect” part of detect-and-avoid.
Avoidance is based on an ACAS X compliant algorithm which detects potential conflicts and proposes a solution to resolve them. This solution is in the form of a waypoint to which the drone can fly to safely avoid conflicting traffic. This waypoint is determined automatically and then either proposed to a human pilot on the ground or sent directly to the autopilot, enabling autonomous flight.
Vigilant Aerospace works with sensor providers and drone manufacturers. Military customers want to purchase full systems, and this is where offering standardised systems is important, to facilitate the integration of the vehicle, sensors, auto-pilot and software.
Vigilant’s FlightHorizon PILOT technology is based on NASA patents. Sometimes, when NASA researchers come up with ideas – in this case the detect-and-avoid technologies – the agency patents them, making them available to the industry. Vigilant exclusively licensed the initial patent, granting them the right to develop products on this basis.
Executive Orders: no funding, no action
The two Executive Orders released at the beginning of June did shake up the drone industry and provide some hope that they will give the industry a much needed push. Kraettli gave an interesting perspective on them. First of all, an Executive Order is not self-funding, so funding will need to be provided to implement any mandates at the FAA.
Another important factor is that a large part of what is referenced in the Executive Orders is based on existing work, including by the FAA Beyond Visual Line of Sight Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC) on which he served. Part of the required regulations have been drafted already and the Department of Transportation (DOT) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will not start from scratch but will build on existing works, including the new “Part 108” rule that is in process. When I asked about working with the FAA, which is under a lot of pressure at the moment, Kraettli told me how impressed he is with their professionalism, each time Vigilant’s team worked together with them. Kraettli has been an active participant in the FAA ARCS (Advisory and Rulemaking committees).
When I asked him about the passage of the Executive Order mentioning “avoiding the onerous requirements,” he applauded the movement away from prescribing requirements (what equipment or technology must be used) towards performance-based requirements (what the technology must achieve, whatever the means used to achieve it). Performance-based requirements open the door to many different technologies and shifts requirements from “how” to achieve a goal, to “what” the goal is, making it easier for technology to evolve, while fulfilling the same requirements.
The real level of drone threat
The last topic we discussed was the real level of threat posed by drones and discussed the recent attack by Ukraine on Russian infrastructure, using drones deep in the country. We focused on the flying part and did not touch how Ukrainians achieved to position the drones at their starting points.
The level of communication and autonomy required is amazing but beyond that, the flying and attacking part is not really an obstacle anymore. This brought our discussion to another topic: what can be done to prevent such an attack. One of the challenges is the short reaction time. The flight time of light, consumer category drones is short, typically around 15 to 20 minutes. This is the time available to detect the threat and react, which is very short, especially if the reaction involves moving aircraft to hangars, or having them take-off.
Detecting such drones is a real challenge, especially if they fly autonomously and don’t send any signals back. GPS jamming has so many side effects that it can’t be used at scale or for long times, and hard-kill countermeasures are really not easy to implement, even more so at airports.
Vigilant Aerospace offers the FlightHorizon DEFENDER counter-UAS solution. The detection part consists of a laptop, small radars, an ADS-B receiver and Remote ID receivers and can fit in a backpack. Because of the timing aspects mentioned above, it must be installed ahead of time. It is rapidly deployable but protecting an asset requires a few minutes of deployment time.
The threat is real and Operation Spiderweb was impressive in scale, and it was by far not the first. From the Gatwick incident in 2018 to sightings in New Jersey in 2024, the numbers keep growing.
