Airports & civil aviation
Airports combine dense passenger flows, high-value aircraft and airspace that a single hostile drone can close. Layered counter-UAS, passive surveillance and cyber defence of operational systems protect the national gateway.
The national gateway and its narrow margins
An international airport is a concentration of everything a state cannot afford to have interrupted: passenger flows, high-value aircraft, cargo, and a reputation for safety that carriers and travellers price directly. Its defining fragility is that a single credible drone sighting can suspend all of it, a closure imposed not by damage but by the precautionary rules that aviation safety demands. The threat does not need to hit anything to succeed.
Below the airspace, the operation runs on systems: air-traffic coordination, ground handling, baggage and access control, all increasingly networked. A disruption there can ground operations as surely as a runway obstruction, and without the visible cause that would make it easy to explain. Protecting civil aviation therefore means holding the airspace over the field, watching the approaches without adding to the electromagnetic clutter, and defending the operational systems that keep the gateway functioning.
Holding the airspace and the systems together
Counter-UAS & loitering munitions provide the core airspace layer, with detection tuned to the small, slow drones that trigger closures and the graduated means to defeat them: the layered, affordable answer to a threat that would otherwise stop the airport at will. Passive Radar complements it by adding surveillance that emits nothing, extending the picture over approaches and perimeter without adding an emitter to a congested and safety-critical electromagnetic environment.
Defensive cybersecurity holds the systems side, keeping the operational and information-technology estate, from coordination to handling to access control, monitored and defended around the clock. Non-destructive testing supports airworthiness on the ground, verifying aircraft and ground-infrastructure integrity without disassembly so the fleet stays certified and available. These are live catalogue capabilities specified to work as one gateway defence: the sky held, the approaches watched silently, the systems defended and the assets proven.
How an aviation engagement runs
The engagement begins with a briefing across the airport's specific exposure, its airspace geometry, its systems estate, its airworthiness burden, so capability is matched to the field rather than to a generic security catalogue. Export-control position and the end-user-certificate chain are confirmed before anything is represented, keeping a programme at a sensitive national gateway governed and traceable from the first step.
Delivery is phased to keep the airport operating: the counter-drone and passive-surveillance layer over the airspace first, then cyber defence of the operational systems, then the inspection regime that sustains availability. In-region sustainment and operator training run throughout, so the airport authority's own people manage the airspace defence and the security operations. One accountable team owns the programme from briefing through long-term operation.
Relevant capability
Layered defence against the drone threat
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Emitter-free surveillance
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Monitoring and incident response
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Inspection and structural assurance
Capability page →Problems this sector faces
A single drone sighting can close a national airport; a single network intrusion can ground its operations. Counter-UAS layers, passive radar surveillance and cyber defence keep runways open and passengers moving.
Problem pageCheap unmanned aircraft now threaten airports, energy sites, borders and public events in every region. Layered counter-UAS, combining detection radar tuned to small slow targets, passive sensing and defeat systems, is the affordable answer recent conflicts demand.
Problem pageAgeing aircraft, vehicles and vessels stay in service far beyond their design life across much of the world. Non-destructive testing verifies structural integrity without disassembly, keeping fleets certified, available and safe, independent of the original manufacturer's schedule.
Problem pageWhere this sector engages us
Frequently asked questions
Can counter-drone defence protect an airport without disrupting normal flights?
Yes. Counter-UAS & loitering munitions are built around detection tuned to small, slow targets and graduated responses, so the airspace can be held against hostile drones while normal traffic continues. The aim is to remove the threat that forces precautionary closures, not to add a new source of disruption to the field.
Why use passive radar rather than another active sensor at an airport?
An airport's electromagnetic environment is already congested and safety-critical. Passive Radar detects and tracks by exploiting ambient signals, adding surveillance over approaches and perimeter without emitting. That extends the picture without introducing another active emitter into an environment where interference carries real safety consequences.
How are operational IT systems protected alongside the airspace?
Defensive cybersecurity keeps the operational and information-technology estate, from coordination to handling to access control, monitored and defended around the clock, with incident response ready. It runs alongside the airspace layer so a network disruption cannot ground the airport while attention is on the sky, and vice versa.