[Goose]

Is there a set of drones that are designed to provide CAP against enemy drones?  I'm not sure it makes sense, but it might.   You could put up large number of such drones to patrol looking for other drones and to take action against them.   Suppose you put up 50 or 100 drones to patrol a perimeter.  Maybe they couldn't have powerful radars but you'd think optical & IR & audio sensors shouldn't be too heavy.   If they could fly high, they could use gravity to help them intercept an enemy drone.   One can imagine non-dynamic ways of disabling an enemy drone so they don't have to carry heavy weaponry or explosives.

The problem is spatial volume. Even 100 drones is a drop of water in the ocean, assuming the threat can come in anywhere along the line of contact. They would need a sensor (IR or audio) that has a significant detection range, and getting that into a drone makes it big and expensive. You don't want such a thing to be an expendable. Also, the drone has to be fast enough to close with the target that it detected at a distance. That also makes it bigger and requires more fuel. Instead, the current approach is to use a recoverable detection drone with long range sensors and faster attack drones that can be tasked to run down the targets. These attack drones are launched on an "as needed" basis. You spread these attack drones all over the country. These attack drones need to be cheap and fast. This can work well but is still in the simulation stages. The opponent can defeat it by having their attacking drones change course often so that you can't predict their target or position at a given time. The attack drones run out of gas trying to catch it.

Lots of people have been working on this problem for a while. There is no off the shelf "solution".

[Goose]

Is there a set of drones that are designed to provide CAP against enemy drones?  I'm not sure it makes sense, but it might.   You could put up large number of such drones to patrol looking for other drones and to take action against them.   Suppose you put up 50 or 100 drones to patrol a perimeter.  Maybe they couldn't have powerful radars but you'd think optical & IR & audio sensors shouldn't be too heavy.   If they could fly high, they could use gravity to help them intercept an enemy drone.   One can imagine non-dynamic ways of disabling an enemy drone so they don't have to carry heavy weaponry or explosives.

The problem is spatial volume. Even 100 drones is a drop of water in the ocean, assuming the threat can come in anywhere along the line of contact. They would need a sensor (IR or audio) that has a significant detection range, and getting that into a drone makes it big and expensive. You don't want such a thing to be an expendable. Also, the drone has to be fast enough to close with the target that it detected at a distance. That also makes it bigger and requires more fuel. Instead, the current approach is to use a recoverable detection drone with long range sensors and faster attack drones that can be tasked to run down the targets. These attack drones are launched on an "as needed" basis. You spread these attack drones all over the country. These attack drones need to be cheap and fast. This can work well but is still in the simulation stages. The opponent can defeat it by having their attacking drones change course often so that you can't predict their target or position at a given time. The attack drones run out of gas trying to catch it.

Lots of people have been working on this problem for a while. There is no off the shelf "solution".