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Problem 02 C-UAS Systems Engineering Very Hard Concept preview

Design a counter-UAS alerting system for a critical infrastructure site

Detect, track and identify drones near a coastal power plant without crying wolf, then hand off to whoever holds the authority to act.

  • Legal authorities
  • Human in the loop
  • ATO boundary

IllustrativeA composite built from public information. It does not describe a specific OCEANS engagement, customer system or solicitation, and every figure on this page is an assumption for the exercise.

Practice mode

45:00

Starts a 45-minute clock on the prompt. Built for rehearsing an orals technical challenge.

01 · The prompt

“A power plant on the coast logs a drone sighting most weeks, and most of them are hobbyists. Design a detect, track and identify system that tells the site's security team which contacts matter, without crying wolf, and that hands off cleanly to the agencies that hold mitigation authority.”

02 · Ask these first

Each of these changes the design. Ask them before drawing a single box.

  1. Q1 Which agencies can legally mitigate here, and what does the site itself own?
  2. Q2 What false-alarm rate will the security team put up with before they stop looking?
  3. Q3 Which sensors are allowed at the site: RF, radar, EO/IR, acoustic? Any spectrum limits?
  4. Q4 How do we tell an authorized drone, a utility inspection say, from an unknown one?
  5. Q5 Who is on shift at 3 a.m., and what can they actually do with an alert?

Practice prompt

Your turn. Requirements, sizing, architecture, trade-offs.

Work it on a whiteboard. Our write-up for this one is still being drafted, so compare your structure against problem 01.

Write-up in progress

The prompt and the opening questions are live. Our full write-up is still being drafted.

You can practice it now. For the finished format, read problem 01.