Airport Runway Clearance Management
Protecting approach corridors, runway clearance zones, and terminal airspace from unauthorized drone incursions that endanger flight operations.
Airports are among the most economically critical and safety-sensitive infrastructure assets in the world. A single drone incursion into controlled airspace — even a completely unintentional one by a recreational flyer — can force runway closures, halt operations for hours, and cost carriers and airports millions of dollars in delays, diversions, missed connections, and regulatory penalties. At major international hubs processing 100,000 or more passengers per day, the stakes are extreme. The economic consequences of a two-hour closure ripple through the entire national air transport network.
A Global and Growing Problem
Between 2014 and the present, drone-related airport disruption incidents have been recorded at major hubs on every continent. The 2018 Gatwick Airport shutdown — during which over 1,000 flights were disrupted, affecting 140,000 passengers — became the defining example of the catastrophic operational risk posed by drone incursions. Since then, incidents have occurred at Paris CDG, Dubai, Singapore Changi, and dozens of second-tier airports globally. Chinese civil aviation authorities have recorded hundreds of “black flight” incidents per year at domestic airports, with several resulting in emergency aircraft diversions and near-miss events.
The risk is not simply operational. A drone ingested into a jet engine on approach is a certified airworthiness catastrophe. Even a small consumer-grade drone weighing 250 g, when struck by an aircraft travelling at 250 knots on final approach, delivers kinetic energy equivalent to a large bird strike — sufficient to cause compressor blade damage, engine flameout, or windshield penetration.
The Detection Challenge at Airports
Airports present a uniquely complex radar environment. High clutter returns from terminal buildings, ground vehicles, jet-blast turbulence, and taxiing aircraft all create signal noise that challenges conventional surveillance radars. At the same time, the targets of interest — small consumer drones — have radar cross-sections (RCS) as low as 0.001–0.01 m², orders of magnitude smaller than the aircraft the airport’s existing primary surveillance radar was designed to detect.
Most airport surface movement radars and approach control radars have minimum detectable targets of 0.1–1.0 m² RCS, meaning they are effectively blind to consumer drone-sized targets. Dedicated low-altitude, low-RCS radar is required.
XR Series Capabilities for Airport Deployment
The XR radar family was engineered with airport environments explicitly in mind. Key capabilities for airport deployment include:
Detection of micro-drone targets: RCS sensitivity down to 0.01 m² enables detection of sub-250 g drones at ranges exceeding 1 km, and standard consumer-class drones (250 g–2 kg) at ranges of 2–5 km depending on variant.
High update rate: Track-and-Scan (TAS) mode achieves 0.5-second update intervals for fast-moving or erratic targets, enabling smooth track extrapolation for handoff to countermeasure systems.
Clutter suppression: Ground clutter cancellation and moving target indication (MTI) processing eliminate returns from fixed structures and slow-moving ground vehicles, presenting clean airspace tracks to operators.
Multi-target capacity: Simultaneous tracking of 200+ targets supports the complex multi-aircraft and multi-drone scenarios at busy airports without track dropout.
Elevation coverage: ±40° to 80° elevation range captures vertical pop-up approaches from below the standard ILS glide path, as well as high-approach trajectories over terminal buildings.
Deployment Architecture
ILS approach corridor: One XR-RD08 or XR-RD11 unit positioned at the extended centreline, typically 3–5 km from the runway threshold, provides early warning of drones entering the approach corridor from behind the facility boundary.
Runway environs: Two to four XR-RD06 units positioned around the runway perimeter provide overlapping 360° coverage of the manoeuvring area and immediate airspace to 3 km radius. This configuration is suitable for Category D and E aerodromes.
Terminal area and apron: XR-RD03 or XR-RD09 close-range units cover the apron, terminal roof, and gate areas where fuel, cargo, and ground service operations create additional drone threat vectors beyond runway intrusion.
ATC Integration and Regulatory Alignment
XR radars output ASTERIX CAT-48 formatted tracks, the standard format used by EUROCONTROL-compliant air traffic management systems. This enables direct overlay of drone tracks onto existing ATC display systems without custom development. Alerts can be configured to automatically notify ATC when a drone track enters the approach corridor within a defined altitude band, enabling rapid runway hold decisions.
The system aligns with ICAO Doc 9854 (Global Air Traffic Management Operational Concept) and CAAC guidance on counter-drone detection at civil airports. XR radars operate within approved frequency bands and maintain coordination capability with airport frequency management requirements.
Return on Investment
A single drone-related runway closure at a major hub costs USD 1–5 million in direct operational costs. A complete XR airport protection system — including hardware, installation, and integration — represents a fraction of this cost and delivers continuous protection 24/7/365. For airport operators and aviation regulators increasingly mandating counter-drone capabilities as part of aerodrome certification, the XR Series provides a technically proven, standards-aligned solution at a highly competitive total cost of ownership.