Rohde & Schwarz R&S ARDRONIS Effect

The R&S ARDRONIS Effect from Rohde & Schwarz (Germany) is the jamming component of the ARDRONIS family for drone defence, built for fixed installations and vehicles. It jams several frequency bands at once and can use its own waveforms to do so. The consequence for the drone is determined by its failsafe: return, landing or crash.

The legal framework comes first: in Germany every use of frequencies needs an assignment from the Bundesnetzagentur (Section 91(1) TKG); authorities may use frequencies assigned to others only for statutory tasks and within the conditions of the Bundesnetzagentur, and private persons and companies have no route to operation. Defence follows Section 15a LuftSiG. In Poland Article 42 of the 2024 Electronic Communications Law determines who may order jamming, and drone defence is governed by Article 156ze of the Aviation Law (Dz.U. 2025 item 179). A device with a gapless range from 400 MHz to 6 GHz touches many radio services, GNSS bands included.

The frequency range runs without gaps from 400 MHz to 6 GHz; press reports from 2026 give 100 MHz as the lower limit. Output power is up to 250 W. As methods the manufacturer lists broadband, smart broadband and smart follower jamming: broadband occupies whole bands, while a follower method tracks the drone's signal in the spectrum and confines the jamming to what is currently in use. Fields of use are military, police and critical infrastructure.

As a system component the Effect presupposes detection and a situational picture that assign it the target; integration into the rest of the chain therefore counts in selection. At 250 W output power, power supply and heat removal are load-bearing requirements, and wear concerns the power amplifiers, cooling, antenna feed lines and connectors. Radio jamming remains without effect against drones without radio or with fibre-optic control.