Why police use this high-tech weapon at the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix after it was spotted by a race-goer
- Police armed with anti-drone weapons ahead of F1 Grand Prix
- Enforce strict flight restrictions over the circuit
A futuristic-looking anti-drone weapon has confused a race-goer after police spotted one waving on a roof during the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix.
The DroneGun Tactical, made by Australian-American company DroneShield, was spotted over the pit lane at Melbourne’s Prince Albert Circuit on Friday during the first day of the Grand Prix’s four-day schedule.
The device works by bombarding a drone with high-frequency radio signals that confuse it into either landing immediately or returning to its controller.
DroneShield rose to prominence after being praised by the Ukrainian Armed Forces when they successfully used their weapons at the outbreak of conflict with Russia.
The weapon will be used by police throughout the event, including Sunday afternoon’s feature race, to enforce strict flight restrictions over the track.
A video of police using the gun was posted to TikTok by a confused racer with the caption, “what are Victoria Police doing with this? [gun emoji] on the roof of the pit lane at the Melbourne F1?’.
However, many users have noticed what the weapon is and what it is used for.
“It looks like a drone gun, to stop people from flying over the track,” one user wrote.
“That’s a drone gun, shoot down drones,” another wrote.
One user even knew the make and model and wrote, “That’s a DroneGun Tactical.” It is used against UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) and drones.’
A spokesperson for Victoria Police confirmed it is “providing operational support to the Grand Prix to enforce current flight restrictions throughout the event period”.
“This includes detection and mitigation of unauthorized drone use in the immediate vicinity that poses a safety risk to event attendees and competitors,” the spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia.
A confused race-goer who attended the first day of Australian F1 Grand Prix events is confused after seeing police wielding a futuristic anti-drone weapon (pictured)
The weapon, a DroneGun Tactical (pictured), comes from Australian company DroneShield and has been used at major events around the world to disrupt unauthorized drones
It is one of several products produced by the company that has been able to detect or disable commercial drones since its inception in 2014.
More recent iterations of the drone gun have seen improvements in weapon weight, moving from a bulky 15kg M1 to the M3 gun that weighs just 2kg.
The DroneGun Tactical provides ‘long-range coverage’ and will immediately interrupt a drone’s video feed if it is attacked with powerful radio signals.
“The best analogy is to say you and I are talking, and someone comes next to us with a loudspeaker and shouts over us,” Oleg Vornick, CEO and general manager of DroneShield told the ABC.
“You’re the pilot, I’m the drone, and the speaker is the jammer.”
Since DroneShield gained popularity during the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, it has scored a number of lucrative military contracts around the world as militaries embrace its anti-drone technology.
On January 1, at the inauguration of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, four unauthorized drones were brought to the ground by DroneShield weapons.
DroneShield products were also used in 2018 to protect the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast and the Seoul Winter Olympics.
In the US, the weapons have been used to shoot down drones that deliver narcotics to prisons and disrupt airspaces around airports.