A NEW airport surveillance system using drones has been trialled at Southend Airport.

The groundbreaking technology is designed to help stop drones in mid air, and help to bring the rogue drone operators to justice.

As drones are becoming cheaper and easier to use, they’re also becoming a thorn in the side of the aviation industry, with three to four sightings of rogue drones per week in the London restricted airspace area alone.

Due to the size and colour of most drones, they are very difficult to spot.

If one is sighted near the critical part of an airport operation, then the only option is to completely stop operations, as happened at Gatwick in July 2017, when thousands of flights were delayed at considerable cost to the airport.

At London Southend Airport, the system being trialled this week can spot drones much sooner than was previously possible, allow them to be tracked, and identify exactly where the operator is located, which offers the possibility of drone operators being apprehended.

Damon Knight, head of London Southend Airport air traffic services, confirmed drones have been spotted in the past near the airport, which serves more than one million passengers a year.

“Fortunately, these rogue drones have not affected our operations,” he said.

“However, we recognise there is a wider problem for the aviation industry, so as an airport, we have been very involved in understanding how we can deal with the issue.”

This new system has been developed by IPS IS, combining its skills with the METIS Aerospace SKYPERION technology.

A series of tame drones were deployed near the airport in order to test how the equipment works in a live situation.

Two airfield sensors were set up, offering 360 degree coverage at a distance of four kilometres in all weathers, 24 hours a day. Glyn Jones, chief executive officer of Stobart Aviation, owners of London Southend Airport, said: “We are delighted this week has been a success and look forward to seeing where this project goes next.”