A Wearable Counter-Drone Jamming Device

The Danish firm MyDefense has developed a new clip-on a wearable smart jammer named PITBULL, to help tackle malicious drones. The PITBULL jammer is designed to protect dismounted soldiers against enemy drones being used for reconnaissance or as weapon delivery systems.

In its endeavour to reduce SWaP (Size, Weight and Power consumption), MyDefense’ PITBULL is developed to be the toughest, lightest, and most power-efficient wearable counterUAS jammer available on the market at a cost-effective price. With a rugged exterior and a weight of only 775 grams, the PITBULL smart jammer is a versatile platform and can reportedly run for up to 20 hours in standby or for two hours when jamming.

The PITBULL can be hooked up to MyDefence’s recently-released Wingman 103 wearable drone detector, making a complete detect-and-defeat solution to mitigate the threat of malicious drones. According to the company’s website the system is plug-n-play and requires minimal training to operate. As reported by newatlas.com the PITBULL has a range of up to 2 km (1.2 miles).

Its low weight and small form factor make the PITBULL an effective Counter UAS jammer that can be carried on the torso or on the outside of clothing to optimize performance (e.g. tactical vest) using the MOLLE straps. Each soldier can carry a personal PITBULL as an active countermeasure against the threat of rouge drones.

It is designed to function either autonomously or manually, and the internal directional antennas cover the 2.4GHz, 5.8GHz and GNSS frequency bands. With its directional antennas, the PITBULL is capable of jamming a malicious drone at the distance of 1000 meters. An external active antenna will be made available to cover additional frequency bands. These signals will reportedly disrupt those being used to remotely control an enemy drone, but will not interfere with the soldier’s own radio communications system.

In manual mode, the PITBULL will constantly jam the desired frequency to deny any malicious drones’ access to the airspace. In autonomous mode, the PITBULL together with the WINGMAN series of drone detector can automatically jam the control signal when a malicious drone is detected.  The PITBULL design results in reduction of the cognitive load of its operator, allowing soldiers to focus on the mission. The Counter UAS software-based jammer will continuously be updated in order to constantly refine and better its performance.

MyDefence is working on an external active antenna for the PITBULL Counter UAS jammer that will provide the end user with the ability to cover additional frequency bands, and thereby extend the capability of the jammer.