For years, radio frequency (RF) detection has been the spine of counter-drone operations worldwide. Navy bases, airports, and significant infrastructure have invested billions in techniques designed to identify unauthorized drones by listening for his or her telemetry indicators and communication hyperlinks.
However in response to new knowledge supplied to The Drone Lady from Dedrone by Axon, that basis is crumbling beneath our toes.
RF detection is just not what it was
In September 2025, Dedrone by Axon shared some key insights into its operational datasets from 2024 and 2025 throughout Europe, the Center East, and Asia in a report titled The State of Airspace Protection At the moment and What’s Subsequent.
Dedrone by Axon builds merchandise that may monitor airspace and detect undesirable drones in there. The airspace safety firm can then mitigate these threats utilizing its expertise.
And its newest report reveals an fascinating development: whereas over 80% of present drone detections nonetheless depend on RF techniques, a rising variety of drone operations are intentionally avoiding radio indicators altogether. This shift towards “RF-silent” flights represents is actually a compelling tactical evolution. For protection groups, it’s a menace to its detection infrastructure.
Simply look to the warfare in Ukraine. Ukraine’s latest navy operations have demonstrated how pre-programmed drones will be deployed with none radio communication, navigating to targets utilizing GPS coordinates, inertial navigation and even visible recognition techniques. When these drones go utterly darkish, conventional RF sensors change into as helpful as listening for telegraph indicators within the smartphone age.
How drone pilots keep away from RF detection
Fashionable drone operators have a number of methods to keep away from RF detection, and the expertise is turning into extra accessible. Examples embrace:
Fiber-Optic tethers: These present a bodily connection between operator and drone that’s utterly resistant to jamming and invisible to RF sensors. Whereas they restrict vary, they’re good for reconnaissance missions or short-range assaults.
Pre-programmed navigation: Drones will be loaded with flight paths and targets earlier than takeoff, eliminating the necessity for real-time communication. Superior variations use SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) expertise to navigate visually, like a drone model of a self-driving automotive.
Autonomous swarms: Utilizing AI coordination, a number of drones can function as a unit with minimal or no radio communication, sharing info by means of mesh networks or working on predetermined algorithms.
Sign Spoofing: Quite than going silent, some operators are feeding false info to RF detection techniques, making malicious drones seem as pleasant plane or civilian site visitors.
Fly at evening: Dedrone’s report discovered that 37.5% of all drone detections in 2025 occurred throughout evening operations. That’s a transparent indication that operators are exploiting lowered visibility to keep away from visible detection whereas concurrently working to defeat RF sensors.
This tactical shift is smart from an operational perspective. For those who can fly with out radio indicators throughout low-visibility situations, you’ve eradicated two of the three major detection strategies (RF and visible) that the majority protection techniques depend on. Solely radar and acoustic sensors stay viable, and each have vital limitations in opposition to small, slow-moving targets.
The ability of DIY drones in opposition to drone detection techniques
Dedrone’s knowledge reveals a 4.3x improve in DIY drone detections in 2025 in comparison with 2024. These custom-built platforms usually function on modified or totally proprietary communication protocols that don’t match the RF signatures that detection techniques are skilled to acknowledge.
In contrast to industrial drones from main producers like DJI, which use standardized communication protocols, DIY builds can make use of something from modified RC automotive controllers to utterly {custom} radio techniques — or no radio in any respect. This range makes it practically unimaginable for RF detection techniques to take care of complete signature libraries.
What now? These sensors are higher
The loss of life of RF-centric detection requires an entire rethinking of sensor structure, Dedrone says. That might embrace:
Radar integration: Fashionable radar techniques have gotten extra refined at distinguishing drone-sized targets from environmental litter, however they should be paired with different sensors for dependable identification.
Acoustic detection: Drones nonetheless make noise, and acoustic sensors can establish the distinctive sound signatures of various rotor configurations. Nevertheless, even that is difficult as advances in electrical propulsion are making drones quieter.
Visible and thermal imaging: AI-powered cameras can establish drones visually, even at evening utilizing thermal signatures. However they require clear strains of sight and will be defeated by climate or camouflage.
What to anticipate going ahead
Most drone detections techniques are designed across the assumption that hostile or international drones would wish to speak with their operators. Take away that assumption, and your complete detection structure turns into unreliable.
“The drone menace is evolving sooner than most defenses can reply,” mentioned Aaditya Devarakonda, CEO of Dedrone by Axon.
And the problem will doubtless solely compound as RF detection continues to say no in effectiveness. As autonomous navigation improves and turns into extra accessible, extra operators will undertake RF-silent ways.
Organizations which have invested closely in radio-based counter-drone techniques will doubtless must spend cash to upgraded or exchange their infrastructure with multi-sensor platforms. For its half, Dedrone by Axon, which launched the info, makes such platforms.
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