Author: James A Acevedo
ISBN No:
Review date: 26/09/2026
No of pages:
Publisher: Star River Solutions
Publisher URL:
https://thedronerevolution.com/
Year of publication: 01/09/2026
Brief:
Drones, like so much else, are tools, and any tool can be used for good or mischief. An American’s book on drones and how to counter malicious use – whether in war as in Ukraine, or for an assassination attempt, or simply ‘chaos’ as at Gatwick Airport before Christmas 2018′ – notes that a ‘pure wild west’ applies. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) offers model UAS (unmanned aerial systems) regulations ‘that most countries nod at politely but adapt at their own glacial pace’.
Civil society is unprepared, James Acevedo argues, and as for products or ‘solutions’ to counter ‘ these aerial pests’, the author keeps finding that vendors’ tech ‘crumbles under scrutiny’.ย The author relates: “I have lost track of the demos I have endured that bombed outside controlled bubbles. One sunny field test: a top tier system vows to detect and jam any drone within a mile. Vendor sets up, launches a test quad, and nothing. The drone waltzes through untouched.” In other words, we might add, just as the sports team talent scout is forever trying to get beyond the ‘edited highlight reels’ of a young athlete doing great feats, so the author knows from experience that what he calls the ‘drone counter-drone tango’ is ‘often illusion over substance’.
Threat
That’s not to deny the threat posed by drones, or indeed swarms of them, and not only in the air by on land or on or under water, that can overwhelm a single layer of protection. The authorities are moving: the author notes approvingly an ‘EU Action Plan’, and in the United States, the federal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ‘launched a dedicated office for drone and counter-drone tech’, and spent, with the protection of the 2026 football World Cup in mind.
As for what to do, this passage shows the author’s flair with words: “In countering unmanned systems, a disciplined sequence unfolds tempered by two guiding caveats: First the cycle of deter, detect, delay, and respond, the bedrock of security. Second risk defined as the triad of threat, vulnerability, and consequence. Deterrence? That is a TED Talk for later. We all know detection begins the dance, identifying an unmanned system presence through a chorus of sensors such as radar piercing the skies, acoustic arrays catching motor hums or wheel tracks, optical cameras gazing with clarity, or RF detectors tracing invisible signals. Next comes classification where the trained eye discerns the system nature. Is it a drone, a benign wanderer, or a harbinger of harm? Intent and threat level take shape here, sifted by software and scrutiny.”
Drones may be new, yet the author’s answer may be reassuringly familiar, in terms of risk management: ‘threat, vulnerability, consequence’. “The tools have changed,” the author writes. “The mission has not.”ย As the author sets out, countering drones is about tech such as radar, LIDAR, and acoustic sensors; but also about working according to laws and rules, and training and exercises: “One team launches custom swarms. The other defends with your actual gear.” The author’s 30 years of experience leads him to conclude: “The best deterrent is staying one step ahead of the guy who never read the rule book in the first place.”
Photo by Mark Rowe: UK Ministry of Defence perimeter fence sign prohibiting drones.
