How to bring down cheap, low-flying drones
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Science & technology | Silent night<br>How to bring down cheap, low-flying drones<br>Acoustics and innovative radar could help<br>Share
Illustration: The Economist / Getty Images
Jun 1st 2026|5 min read
SMALL DRONES are everywhere. Not just in Ukraine, but flying over air bases in mainland America and Britain, and hitting targets across the Middle East. The technology is cheap, easy to use and accessible, with groups like Hizbullah enthusiastically deploying small quadcopters to hit Israeli tanks. To make matters worse, existing air-defence sensors have been mostly designed to spot bigger threats like manned aircraft and missiles.
This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “How to make drones squeal”
From the June 6th 2026 edition<br>Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents<br>⇒Explore the edition
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