Drones vs. Lightning: Japan Finds Replacement for Lightning Rods

Engineers from the Japanese technology company NTT have built a drone that can act as a lightning rod: during a thunderstorm, it rises above the ground, provokes a lightning strike, takes it on itself and continues to function, preventing lightning from striking infrastructure facilities.

Image source: group.ntt

NTT tested the device in December 2024 and January 2025. The drone was raised to an altitude of 300 meters and placed in a Faraday cage with a wire attached to it, connected to a winch and a switch on the ground. A voltage of over 2,000 volts was then applied to the wire, causing a real lightning strike to hit the drone. “A loud crack was heard at the moment of impact, a flash occurred on the winch, and partial melting occurred in the lightning protection cage of the drone,” NTT said. However, the UAV survived and “continued to fly stably even after the lightning strike,” because the cage “diverted the strong current from the lightning strike away from the internal components of the drone, preventing it from passing through the drone itself.”

The Faraday cage, the Japanese company’s engineers note, can be installed on other commercially available UAVs – this will provide more effective protection compared to classic lightning rods, since the drones can be deployed in different places. NTT expects to launch such drones en masse over large cities during thunderstorms, when lightning can cause significant damage. In Japan alone, damage from lightning strikes is estimated at 100 to 200 billion yen (from $700 million to $1.4 billion) per year.