Counter-UAS by interceptor swarm: Atreyd tests its “flying minefield” in Ukraine

Ukraine is the first country to test a French-developed Counter-UAS system that can deploy hundreds of interceptor drones at once. Both the drones and the associated software come from French start-up Atreyd.

It has long been known that drones are dangerous to aircraft. If an aeroplane collides with a drone in flight, the situation can quickly become critical: damage to cockpit windows, to instruments such as pitot tubes, to flaps, control surfaces or the engines can severely impair airworthiness – in extreme cases to the point of a crash. Atreyd deliberately turns precisely such collisions into the principle of an air defence system.

Counter-UAS from a container: a drone wall

The Atreyd Drone Wall System (DWS-1) – literally a drone wall – is a containerised defence solution that detects, intercepts and neutralises airborne threats. The manufacturer promises unprecedented efficiency: up to 1,000 small interceptor drones form a flying structure in the sky as a swarm, controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), intended to stop hostile drones, glide bombs and even missiles as an “impenetrable barrier”. Military bases, critical infrastructure or high-security zones – according to Atreyd, this autonomous, adaptive shield is meant to provide maximum protection in any environment.

The drones are housed in closed, transportable containers, so they can be deployed quickly almost anywhere. The system is linked to existing security and defence networks; the AI then steers the swarm precisely into the flight path of the incoming threat. As a “building block” of an adaptive structure in the air, each individual drone continuously changes its position to intercept incoming threats.

Because the AI handles coordination, the system responds in real time to changing attack patterns. This creates a mobile, steerable “flying minefield” in the sky. In this dense interception curtain, each drone carries a warhead with which it neutralises incoming enemy munitions before they hit their target.

Each unit is controlled either autonomously by the AI or by a single operator, who can command up to 100 drones at once. The system does not need GPS, because 3D maps are preinstalled.

Last line of defence against Shahed and glide bombs

For Atreyd, the system is the “last line of defence” against airborne threats, such as Shahed drones or Russian glide bombs. Once internal testing is complete, the Ukrainian armed forces will use the technology operationally for the first time.

Atreyd is one of three companies selected in a NATO competition for advanced countermeasures against Russian glide bombs.