A worked scenario that brings detection and defeat together:
- An FPV drone approaches; passive RF detection picks up the control/video link and gives the first warning (Detection first: C-UAS = detect + defeat) — without transmitting itself.
- A short-range radar confirms through the micro-Doppler of the rotor blades (Radar); EO/IR identifies the type (Infrared). The sensors cue each other (sensor fusion, Multi-sensor detection & sensor fusion).
- An RF jammer breaks the C2 link (The two links to attack, Defeat methods); if that fails, GNSS spoofing follows to deceive the drone or make it land (GNSS and navigation warfare).
- Twist: if it turns out to be a fibre-optic drone (Lessons from Ukraine (open source)), jamming does not work — fall back on detection by radar/acoustics and on kinetic means.
Key lesson
Counter-UAS is always detect + defeat, and layered: several sensors (Multi-sensor detection & sensor fusion) plus several defeat options. And it has a limit — against a drone without a radio link, EW no longer helps.