IAI Unveils HYPNOSIS to Defeat Satellite-Guided Drones at Farnborough

Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) unveiled HYPNOSIS at the Farnborough International Airshow: a modular, networked soft-kill system designed to defeat satellite-guided unmanned aircraft by disrupting their navigation and timing signals.

Satellite-guided small unmanned aerial vehicle (representative image)

At a Glance

Maker: Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI).
Type: modular, networked soft-kill counter-UAS system.
Method: disrupting the navigation and timing signals of GNSS-guided drones.
Advantage: neutralisation without expending interceptors or physical destruction.
Reveal: Farnborough 2026 (20-24 July).

What was announced

HYPNOSIS offers a non-kinetic answer to the intensifying drone threat. The system disrupts a target drone’s satellite navigation (GNSS) and timing signals, causing it to lose its position solution and fail its mission. This soft-kill approach avoids spending an expensive interceptor missile or gun round on every target.

IAI describes the system as modular and networked, meaning it can be integrated onto different platforms and allow multiple sensors and effectors to operate over a shared network. The spread of satellite-guided and autonomous drones in Ukraine and the Middle East has driven demand for such electronic-warfare solutions.

System and threat context

Satellite-guided drones rely on GPS/GNSS to follow a route, and that dependence is also a vulnerability. Jamming the signal or deceiving it with a false one (spoofing) can make a drone lose its position fix. HYPNOSIS is intended to combine both techniques in a modular architecture.

Soft-kill systems shift the cost balance toward the defender in swarm scenarios where many cheap drones attack at once, neutralising multiple targets across an area with a single electronic-warfare effect rather than one costly interceptor per drone.

Why it matters

Counter-UAS electronic warfare is a field where Turkey’s industry is also investing heavily, with ASELSAN’s IHTAR counter-drone system, GOKBERK laser weapon and KORKUT offering a layered architecture. The prominence of systems like HYPNOSIS at trade shows underscores that EW-based soft-kill has become a global standard against cheap drone threats.