Unmanned aerial vehicles as a source of threats to the state’s electricity supply infrastructure and the proposed methods of protecting this infrastructure

Abstract

Unmanned aerial vehicles pose a threat to objects important to national security. Their versatility, resulting from the characteristics of individual types of aircraft, means that the scale of their use in attacks is virtually unlimited. The electricity supply system is extremely important for state security. Due to the vastness of transmission networks and a significant number of node points of these networks, the question should be asked to what extent this system is resistant to terrorist attacks, especially those carried out with the use of unmanned aerial vehicles. In this paper, the author analyses an attack consisting in causing a short circuit of the electrical system with the use of a copper wire suspended under an unmanned aerial vehicle. The implementation of the recommended protection methods described in the paper should lead to an increased level of safety of transmission networks.