Drone Detection and Tracking: A Procurement Checklist for Airports, Prisons and Critical Infrastructure

Unmanned aircraft over restricted airspace are now a routine operational question for airports, prisons, energy sites and stadiums — and the procurement market answering it is full of systems whose brochures cannot survive a site survey. This checklist walks the detection-and-tracking decisions in the order they actually get made, using published specifications from the detection equipment we supply. One boundary first, because it defines everything below: we sell passive detection and tracking only — no jamming, no spoofing, no interception. Mitigation is a legal question in every jurisdiction we ship to, and for most sites the honest answer is that detection plus procedure beats detection plus a device nobody is licensed to switch on.

Step 1 — Define the volume, not the perimeter

The first number is not budget; it is geometry. Write down:

• Altitude band of interest. Most small-UAS incursions happen below 200 m AGL; our RF detection specifies a minimum detection altitude of 0 m, which matters because a sensor that only sees above the hangar roof misses the approach that matters.
• Azimuth coverage. 360° around the protected point, or a sector (runway alignment, fence line). The low-altitude radar covers azimuth 0–360° with elevation 0–30°; RF units network for combined coverage.
• Range rings. Classify airspace as detect (≥5 km), identify (≥1,500 m visual), alert (site boundary). Each ring is a different sensor's job, and buying one device for all three is how blind spots get made.

Step 2 — Choose the detection modalities

The modalities are sequential, not alternative: RF and radar find, EO confirms. The fixed detection & positioning unit (≥5 km detection, IP66, −40 to +70 °C) closes the locate-and-log gap between the two.

Step 3 — Demand the fusion answer

Three sensors producing three alert streams is three operators watching three screens. Ask any vendor — including us — the fusion questions in writing:

1. Does the radar cue the EO tracker automatically? (Ours supports radar-linked identification and tracking — the EO slews to the radar track.)
2. Do RF direction lines and radar tracks merge into one picture with one timeline?
3. Multi-unit networking: our RF units support networked deployment and Wi-Fi access — how many units before coverage is complete, and what does the console cost?
4. Event logging: blacklist/whitelist, track playback and event logs are specified functions on the RF unit. For an airport or prison, the log is the product — an undetected drone is a bad day; an unlogged one is an inspection failure.

Step 4 — Run the false-alarm budget

Detection success ≥95% sounds absolute until you multiply by traffic. At 30 targets simultaneously in a band crowded with legitimate radio — broadcast, Wi-Fi, taxi radios, other operators' telemetry — the metric that decides whether your operators trust the system is false alarms per shift. Mitigate by design:

• Site-survey the RF environment before fixing detector positions (the 300 MHz–6 GHz band is everything).
• Radar blind zone (≤200 m on our unit) and elevation floor (0–30°) must be checked against ground clutter: terrain, tank farms, glass façades.
• Whitelist known cooperative aircraft as a configuration item, not an afterthought.

Budget acceptance testing in the contract: N days of logged operation before final sign-off, with false-alarm rates measured, not promised.

Step 5 — Survive the environment

Published operating specs are the difference between equipment and decoration: the detection & positioning unit runs −40 °C to +70 °C at IP66 with lightning/surge-protected interfaces; the RF unit draws ≤50 W, the positioning unit ≤150 W — both are PoE-class power budgets, not generator budgets. Masts, lightning protection and network drops belong in the quotation conversation; they are typically 15–30% of installed cost.

Step 6 — Keep the legal line where we drew it

To be explicit about the boundary of this category: our detection products sense emissions, reflectivity and light. They do not transmit against aircraft. Buyers in airport and prison environments consistently ask what happens after identification — the answer is procedure (law-enforcement notification, flight suspension, evidence handoff), and the detection system's job is to make that procedure fast and documented. Any vendor offering you a jammer without a national licence is offering you a confiscation order and, in the US, an FCC enforcement action.

The checklist, compressed

1. Volume defined: altitude band, azimuth, three range rings.
2. Modalities assigned per ring: RF for early passive warning, radar for emissions-blind coverage, EO for confirmation and evidence.
3. Fusion specified in writing: radar-cued EO, merged track picture, networked units.
4. False-alarm budget set and acceptance-tested before sign-off.
5. Environmental and power specs matched to the actual masts.
6. Response procedure written; mitigation left to licensed authorities.

The detection & tracking category lists every unit with its published specifications; all four models are quoted per SET with site-configuration questions answered before pricing, because detection is the one product line where the brochure is only half the system. If you send the site drawing and the altitude band, the proposal covers sensor placement, networking and the console — which is what a checklist is actually for.