Northampton graduate's 'SkyFence' could stem tide of drones delivering drugs to prisoners

Richard Gill MBA, a graduate from the University of Northampton and founder of his business Drone Defence, has developed a state-of-the-art way to keep drone deliveries out of prison.

His invention, SkyFence, is an electronic countermeasures system which prevents drones from flying into or close to a protected location by disrupting its command and navigation radio transmissions.

SkyFence has already been deployed at Guernsey Prison and has received Government backing in the House of Commons by prisons minister Rory Stewart.

It has been created as a countermeasure in the face of the rising threat of drug smuggling through drones into prisons.

It also comes after drones have brought Gatwick and Heathrow Airport to a standstill on multiple occasions in recent months.

Richard said: "Drones are fantastic tools when used responsibly but, like many things, the technology can be abused to cause harm such as smuggling contraband into prisons.

"SkyFence is an elegant solution to help protect prisons from illegal drone use. Our system in Guernsey is the first of its kind in the world and is in high demand. We are now working with Government to see how we can deploy it in the UK.”

According to a report by Grand View Research, Inc, the global anti-drone market size is anticipated to reach $1.85 billion by 2024.

Richard said: “Drone Defence has grown, in terms of status, revenue and technology. We have positioned ourselves as a thought leader, as well as a capability and equipment provider for a whole range of companies. We are in a very early-stage market at the moment – so the major money isn’t being released on drones as yet by the bigger corporations.

“But we saw the drone incidents at Gatwick and Heathrow recently, and that has definitely woken the main market up to the threats that can be posed and now more budget is being allocated to this technology.”