Long-Range Anti-Drone Gun can Secure the Entire Neighborhood

Whether you're concerned about them snooping or indulging in something much more sinister like firing weapons, there are now a few precautions you can take when it comes to errant drones. If you don't have access to a flock of drone-hunting eagles, a new weapon could be the next-best option, with the ability to ground unmanned aircraft from up to 1.3 mi (2 km) away.

The Dronegun takes the same approach as a number of drone-jamming systems that fire radio waves into the distance to confuse the aircraft's control channels, such as the shoulder-mounted Battelle DroneDefender and the larger Anti-UAV Defence System.

The latter is capable of picking out drones as far away at 8 km (5 mi), but is a serious set of equipment that comes mounted on a vehicle. The Dronegun from Virginia-based Droneshield promises a more portable option that can quickly be whipped out in the case of an incoming threat.

Shaped like an extravagant laser-tag rifle, the Dronegun hooks up to a backpack and when adequately aimed, blasts the drone with electromagnetic noise at the same frequencies it uses for video transmission and control communications. This will typically cause the drone to return to its take-off point, though the Dronegun can block GPS too, in which case the drone will likely land on the spot.

The similarly designed Battelle DroneDefender can disable drones up to 400 m (1,300 ft) away, so the Dronegun promises a decidedly larger drone-free radius. It is not, however, intended for civilian use, at least not to begin with. The company is not offering it in the US, other than to government agencies, in the hope that they deem it a safe and appropriate anti-drone tool.

You can check out the Dronegun in action, in the promo video below.