South of Vienna – Austria is becoming a mecca for drone hunters

He secures the airspace over Airpower, monitors the G20 summit in Bali and is now doing everything he can to make Austria a leading country in drone detection: Stephan Kraschansky, 32, stands here at Vienna-Vöslau airport for a 28 meters high mobile watchtower. He is Managing Director of the Austrian subsidiary of “Aaronia AG”, the German world market leader in drone detection. Two more of these masts, and even the smallest radio drones can be located miles around Vöslau by triangulation. But what is all this for?

Major events, barracks, critical infrastructure
“We are constantly going through possible scenarios,” Kraschansky explains a little later in his office at the airport. “Imagine a commercial drone flying over a crowded football stadium, spreading white powder. It’s hard to imagine what would happen in the event of a possible stampede – even if it had just been flour.”

The young Upper Austrian has spent almost all of his professional life in drone defense and, as a former army officer, built up one of Europe’s most progressive anti-drone units with ELDRO – until frustration over the lack of decisions and internal squabbles became too much. awesome. The fact that the danger of drones is only now slowly dawning on decision-makers makes him shake his head. The list of incidents grows longer almost every day.

Airports closed, smuggling to prisoners
Illegal drone flights paralyzed London Gatwick Airport in 2018 and Frankfurt Airport in 2021. In Italy, the Neapolitan Mafia used a drone to smuggle a gun into a prison, and in Mexico, cartel members used remote-controlled planes to target local police. Security consultants at the Austrian consultancy TAAS have long automatically included the subject of “drone defence” in their risk analyses. And all this applies to the civil sector. We are not even talking about Ukraine.

“We also use different systems there,” explains Kraschansky. The Ukrainian soldiers were trained on the devices in Germany, and several relevant badges hang on the wall in Kraschansky’s office. “It is in Ukraine that the world is currently learning the most about UAVs. Everything that flies becomes a weapon here” (see report below).

Perfect conditions in Bad Vöslau
But back to Vöslau. Next week the three early detection masts will go into operation, from then on hundreds of drone hunters can be trained in the modern center every year. The airfield offers perfect training conditions thanks to numerous civil transmitters and flight movements. “Just like in real life,” says Kraschansky beaming – in contrast to the very complex positioning equipment at the top of the mast. “We only use passive sensors that constantly listen to radio frequencies from drones to their controllers. We do not emit radiation ourselves,” says Kraschansky. If necessary, the passive “frequency listener”, which is constantly looking for the special drone radio signals, can be supplemented with radar or infrared cameras.

Call: Who wants to compete against the experts?
The only drawback: there are not enough specialists on the market. “I don’t really care about formal training. I need crime scene hackers. hobbyist. In Germany, we have employees who buy electrical components on AliExpress and the like all day long to build the most difficult enemy actors for our system,” says Kraschansky. And per “Krone” he takes on a special challenge: “If there are particularly talented drone hobbyists in Austria, please contact us at dronepiloten@aaronia.at. We are always happy with serious challengers”