Israeli drone defense saves Pope Francis from rogue threat

Abigail Klein Leichman

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EnforceAir anti-drone solution from Israel’s D-Fend neutralized a suspicious UAV flying over a large public Mass in Slovakia, without any disruption.

D-Fend’s EnforceAir anti-drone ground-level tactical solution. Photo courtesy of D-Fend Solutions

When a rogue drone appeared over a large public Mass led by Pope Francis in Slovakia on September 15, the threat was neutralized — without any disruption to the worshipers — by the EnforceAir anti-drone ground-level tactical solution from Israel’s D-Fend.

According to newly available information reported by the Jerusalem Post, the suspicious drone flew over the religious ceremony attended by 90 bishops, 500 priests and 60,000 Catholics in Šaštín, site of the National Marian Shrine.

“EnforceAir fended off the rogue drone, sending it back to its original takeoff position, far away from the large crowd,” a D-Fend spokesman told the Jerusalem Post.

Working in coordination with the Slovakian Interior Ministry, D-Fend deployed its technology at several outdoor appearances by the pope in Slovakia from September 12 to 15.

“Our system, in either autonomous or manual mode, detects, locates and identifies rogue drones in your airspace and then neutralizes the threat by allowing you to take full control over the drone and land it safely in a predefined zone,” the company explains.

“Since the system does not rely upon jammers or kinetic technology, EnforceAir avoids collateral damage, interference, disruption and disturbance. Continuity prevails as communications, commerce, transportation, and everyday life smoothly proceed.”

A representative of the pope’s security team said that the EnforceAir solution “took control of the rogue drone that threatened the potential safety of the pope, the crowd and the VIPs in attendance, quickly and easily.”

One day before that incident, the Ra’anana-based D-Fend Solutions announced that its Multi-Sensor Command & Control (MSC2) system won Security Today’s “New Product of the Year” award in the unmanned aerial vehicle (drone) category.

Organizers of the G7 Summit held last June in Cornwall, England, also chose D-Fend’s technology to protect the visiting world leaders.

The video below shows how EnforceAir was used in a joint three-day exercise led by INTERPOL and the Norwegian Police.

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