Home Articles What It Takes to Detect a Drone – Inside the Counter-UAS Toolkit

What It Takes to Detect a Drone – Inside the Counter-UAS Toolkit

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7th November 2025

Drones are no longer just a nuisance – they’re fast becoming one of the most unpredictable threats in the modern battlespace. From low-flying FPV drones to autonomous systems using AI navigation, the challenge isn’t just spotting them – it’s spotting them fast enough to act. 

Increasingly, those threats are autonomous – drones using onboard AI to navigate, evade and disrupt. In response, Roke’s C-UAS systems bring AI to the operational edge, enabling faster, smarter decision-making. It’s AI meets AI: intelligent defence technology designed to outpace intelligent threats. 

Underpinning this capability is the SAPIENT standard.

A high-level framework that enables sensors to operate intelligently at the edge. By abstracting sensor behaviour and enabling structured, interpretable data exchange, SAPIENT supports real-time fusion and bandwidth-efficient communication. 

This isn’t just technical innovation – it’s strategic leadership. By embedding SAPIENT, Roke is modelling mission partner behaviour: building trust in AI through transparency, interoperability and human-centric design.  

To explore how layered sensing and intelligent integration are reshaping the future of air defence – and why modular systems like Roke’s CORTEXA GUARDIAN are built to meet that challenge, get in touch.

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7th November 2025