UAS operations & counter-UAS

Plan, preflight, fly, deconflict, process, exploit — air-gapped.

The UAS loop runs in-process on the same engine as the COP: FlyPath mission planning with DJI WPML export, an offline-first airspace and Go / No-Go preflight, a hand-rolled MAVLink decoder that publishes the aircraft as friendly-UAS CoT, a BVLOS picture fused from Remote ID and ADS-B, radar-fed counter-UAS threat assessment, flight-log replay, fleet records, ODM orthomosaics and radiometric thermal exploitation to calibrated °C — with no vendor SDK bytes.

FlyPath → DJI WPMLAirspace + NOTAM + METAR gateMAVLink 1/2 (pure C#)NetRID (ASTM F3411)BVLOS pictureC-UAS radar webhookFLIR + DJI R-JPEG → °CODM / WebODM

At a glance

  • PlanBoustrophedon / corridor / orbit / free-flight from a survey polygon; terrain-aware AGL from the DEM; multi-battery split; DJI WPML .kmz
  • PreflightClass B/C/D/E, SUA, TFR and UASFM grid mirrored to a local GPKG; NOTAM + METAR wind gate + checklist → GO / CAUTION / NO-GO; keyless
  • FlyMAVLink UDP/TCP downlink (PX4, ArduPilot); gimbal / camera / zoom command path; NTRIP → GPS_RTCM_DATA relay; friendly-UAS CoT to TAK
  • DeconflictNetwork Remote ID overlay; BVLOS threat picture with comm-link LOS over the DEM; C-UAS threat levels against protected assets
  • ProcessODM orthophoto COG + DSM / DTM / textured mesh; WebODM import; oriented imagery catalog; bulk project import of 3D Tiles / SLPK / DEM / ortho
  • ExploitRadiometric LWIR: FLIR + DJI decode to °C in clean-room C#, hotspots, temperature COGs, DTAT3-parity palettes and measurements, HTML / PDF / CSV reports
No DJI / FLIR SDK bytes shipRead-only flight link except gimbal / cameraEvery stage degrades cleanly without its sidecarFriendly-UAS CoT to the TAK mesh

Capabilities

The operational loop, phase by phase

Mission planning (FlyPath)

Draw the survey polygon; FlyPath picks the heading that minimizes legs and turns, recomputes GSD, photo count, distance and batteries live, splits at battery boundaries with seam waypoints and writes a clean-room DJI WPML .kmz.

  • GET /api/flypath/drones spec table drives the GSD math
  • POST /api/flypath/export · push to a USB-connected DJI RC
  • Prediction → 200 m orbit at 100 m AGL over a tracked entity

Airspace and preflight

FAA airspace, SUA, TFRs and UASFM grid altitudes mirrored to a local GeoPackage (56-day cycle, TFRs every 12 h) so the core check runs offline. One composer chains airspace intersection, NOTAMs, a METAR wind gate and the checklist into a single verdict.

  • POST /api/preflight/evaluate → status, reasons, wind, flight category
  • LAANC-required cells flagged as CAUTION; no-fly → NO-GO
  • Bundled controlled-airspace dataset for disconnected use

Telemetry and payload

A pure-C# MAVLink v1/v2 parser (CRC16/X.25 with CRC_EXTRA, audited against the reference headers) decodes position, attitude, GPS fix, battery and armed state; the aircraft renders as a heading wedge and republishes as CoT.

  • UDP 14550 bind or TCP to a serial bridge; opt-in, never binds on startup
  • Payload manager: gimbal pitch / yaw / roll, Follow / Lock / Free, RGB / thermal switch, zoom, record
  • RTK: NTRIP corrections relayed as GPS_RTCM_DATA; RINEX ingestion for trajectory work

BVLOS picture and Remote ID

Own-ship, friendly UAS, Network Remote ID and ADS-B crewed traffic normalize into one picture; range, bearing and closing rate drive Caution / Warning; the DEM is sampled along the GCS↔aircraft path to check the radio link.

  • /api/bvlos/events proximity alerts over SSE
  • NetRID USS poll → purple UAS overlay + CoT to ATAK
  • Any source is optional; the picture renders with what is available

Counter-UAS overlay

An external radar pushes tracks to a local webhook; a deliberately conservative rule-based classifier scores each contact against protected assets and de-escalates anything correlated with a broadcasting Remote ID.

  • POST /api/cuas/radar — event-driven, no poll loop
  • Hostile / Suspect / Unknown / Friendly; fixed-wing escalates faster
  • Drill injector for exercises; feeds the force-protection Security COP

Post-flight and processing

Replay ArduPilot .tlog / .bin / .log or DJI DatCon CSV as a time-animated track on the same scene you planned on; keep the fleet registry; run local OpenDroneMap for orthophoto COG, DSM / DTM and textured mesh; auto-derive an oriented imagery catalog from EXIF or FMV KLV.

  • Skydio Cloud browse of vehicles / flights / media as layers
  • Bulk import of a folder tree of 3D Tiles, SLPK, DEM and ortho deliverables
  • Vendor-neutral LiDAR processing (Terra-alt): Axelsson ground classification, DEM / contours / TIN, stockpile volumes

Thermal exploitation (LWIR)

Batch radiometric R-JPEG exploitation: FLIR and DJI (H20T, H20N, H30T, M2EA, M30T, M3T / M3TD, M4T) decode to calibrated °C in clean-room C#, georeference with DEM-aware corner rays, detect hotspots, render ten DTAT3 palettes and roll into a mission report.

  • Float32 °C COGs; identify returns TemperatureC
  • Spot / rect / circle / line measurements; emissivity, distance, humidity overrides recompute without re-decoding
  • HTML + CSV + PDF reports; one corrupt frame never poisons the batch

Full-motion video

STANAG 4609 / MISB ST 0601 KLV parsed and encoded as exact inverses; live RTSP / UDP / SRT through ffmpeg; per-frame footprint from corner points or FOV + slant range; DJI SRT / flight log → MISB-tagged .ts; stabilization and frame mosaic to a north-up GeoTIFF.

  • /fmv/ HTML5 player with KLV telemetry panel
  • YOLO-E detections → CoT → tip-and-cue

Sortie workflow

One sortie through the loop

Each phase is a separate service with its own tests; the value is that they share one map, one DEM, one TAK connection and one job board.

  1. PlanDraw the AO, choose the airframe, export WPML — the plan sits on the same 3D scene as the threat picture.
  2. PreflightEvaluate airspace, TFRs, NOTAMs, wind and the checklist; read the GO / CAUTION / NO-GO reasons.
  3. FlyBind the MAVLink downlink; the aircraft appears as own-ship and as friendly-UAS CoT on every ATAK on the net; point the gimbal from the map.
  4. DeconflictRemote ID and ADS-B traffic close in on the BVLOS picture; radar contacts are assessed against the protected assets; alerts stream to the Security COP.
  5. Process and exploitReplay the log, run ODM to an ortho and DSM, decode the thermal set to °C, detect hotspots and issue the report — all landing as live layers served to QGIS, ArcGIS Pro and TAK.

Specifications

Interfaces and formats

Flight side

  • MAVLinkv1 / v2, UDP bind (14550) or TCP; PX4 packed main / sub modes; SYS_STATUS sentinels handled
  • CommandsGimbal + camera only — no arm / disarm, mode change, mission upload or failsafe override
  • RTKNTRIP → GPS_RTCM_DATA relay; RINEX ingest
  • LogsArduPilot .tlog / .bin / .log · DJI DatCon CSV
  • PlansDJI WPML .kmz

Airspace & traffic

  • AirspaceClass B/C/D/E5 · SUA · TFR · UASFM grid, local GPKG mirror
  • WeatherAviationWeather.gov METAR; FAA NOTAM feed; keyless
  • Remote IDASTM F3411 Network RID (USS poll) + 1090 MHz broadcast via readsb
  • ADS-BLocal SDR or remote Beast / SBS1 / aircraft.json
  • C-UASRadar track webhook + protected-asset registry

Processing & thermal

  • ODMFast ortho · ortho + DSM · + DTM · + textured mesh; video frames via DJI .srt
  • Thermal inputsFLIR Vue Pro R / Duo Pro R R-JPEG · DJI H20T / H20N / H30T / M2EA / M30T / M3T / M3TD / M4T
  • Thermal outputsFloat32 °C COG · hotspot GPKG · measurements · HTML / CSV / PDF
  • FMVMISB ST 0601 (96-tag) · STANAG 4609 · RTSP / UDP / SRT
  • LiDARLAS 1.2–1.4 · LAZ · COPC; E57 via PDAL sidecar

Honest scope

What ships, what is optional, what is next

Defense buyers get burned by overclaims. This is the plain-language scope for this capability, drawn from the product’s own documentation.

  • Shipped FlyPath, preflight, MAVLink, payload, RTK relay, BVLOS, NetRID, C-UAS, replay, fleet, ODM, oriented imagery, thermal, FMV — Each service is in the engine with its own test suite.
  • Optional sidecar / gated ODM, ffmpeg, PDAL, YOLO-E — Install-gated sidecars; absence returns a 503 with an install hint. Thermal orthomosaic depends on ODM; thermal anomaly scoring ships with no model.
  • Roadmap LAANC authorization — The tool detects that LAANC is required and overlays the UASFM grid; it does not file the request. Preflight is a decision aid, not a filing service, and can degrade to cached data with a warning when sources are offline.
  • Roadmap RF-based counter-UAS — Detection is radar-push today; RF protocol fingerprinting and geolocation are Phase 2. Remote ID de-escalation assumes cooperation — a spoofed ID is not modeled. No jamming or defeat.
  • Roadmap Full PPK and serial MAVLink — Real-time RTK relay and RINEX ingestion ship; carrier-phase PPK math and serial (SiK / RFD900) transport are Phase 2. Broadcast Remote ID over Bluetooth / Wi-Fi is out of scope.
  • Roadmap Not a certified DAA or RID system — The BVLOS picture is situational awareness, not an authorization or a certified detect-and-avoid system; MAVLink display is not a Part 89 Remote ID substitute. DJI→MISB emits the ST 0606 Universal Set, not bit-exact 0601.

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