A new menace has emerged on Racecourses throughout the world, drone incursions by illegal gambling syndicates who use drones to fly alongside live races to beam photos back to the syndicates to make on the spot bets.
Not only is the practice illegal, taking valuable revenue for the sport, but it presents a clear and present danger to the horses and the jockeys.
In a first, the Chepstow Military Raceday on November 8th will show a number of C-UAS systems to counter the drone threat and bring the drones down before they enter the racecourse airspace and thus endanger the lives of horses and jockeys.
Companies showing C-UAS equipment at Chepstow include SPX Communications Technologies (CommTech TCI|ECS) whose BLACKTALON Counter UAS solution will be on display at the Racecourse entrance. Working closely with SPX CommTech (TCI|ECS) is race sponsor, Echodyne, the US radar specialist with four of its EchoShield radars displayed on the BLACKTALON system and in the restaurant.
Julian Nettlefold, publisher of BATTLESPACE, said: “The profile of sponsors and attendees at the Chepstow Military Raceday makes it a perfect forum for displaying the equipment available to racecourses to counter the drone incursion threats by illegal gambling syndicates. All the equipment on show has been battle proven and has protected the citizens of Ukraine in particular.”
Eben Frankenberg, CEO Echodyne said. “Our radars provide the perfect solution for C-UAS detection before the drone reaches the racecourse perimeter and thus endangers the lives of jockeys and horses. The target is then handed over to the ECS-SPX system to disable it safely and without causing distress to the horses or jockeys.”
Jackson White of SPX CommTech (TCI|ECS) said, “We are delighted to support the Chepstow Military Raceday and recognise the ongoing drone threat to racecourses from illegal gambling syndicates. We have developed a scalable C-UAS system BLACKTALON, which tackles the threats presented by malicious drones.”
Other C-UAS companies attending the event include Openworks Engineering and Chess Dynamics.