DroneShield wins large order for counterdrone technology in Asia

Artificial intelligence defence technology company DroneShield has received close to $1m in orders for its counterdrone technology, as war in Ukraine demonstrates an increasing need for military anti-drone capabilities.

The $900,000 order for the portable counterdrone system is from a government agency of a country allied with the West.

DroneShield CEO, Oleg Vornik, said the use of Iranian-made ‘kamikaze’ Shahed-136 drones by Russian forces to attack cities, civilian targets, and infrastructure in Ukraine highlighted the rising importance of counterdrone technology.

Mass drone attacks, such as those seen in Ukraine, have been dubbed the future of warfare, with many current anti-aircraft systems less capable of countering the threat, raising the need for dedicated antidrone systems.

“As we are seeing in Ukraine, with the latest use of Shahed-136 drones by Russia, drone warfare continues to rapidly escalate, and Government agencies globally are responding to this threat with acquisitions of counterdrone systems, where DroneShield is the global leader in the sector,” he said.

The $900,000 sale follows a rapid number of orders for its artificial intelligence drone systems, including a $1.8 million order for DroneGun units from the U.S. Department of Defence last week; a $2 million ‘detect and defeat’ system sold to a European government in September, and the sale of a counterdrone system to a U.S. international airport.

“This latest order is important in several ways. It demonstrates the progression of the business from development of our product suite several years ago, to regular smaller orders, to periodic larger orders, to regular larger orders, which we anticipate to further increase in size over time,” Vornik said.

“The new order is a testament to the diversity of the DroneShield sales pipeline – with the last three larger orders being U.S., Europe and Asia based.

“The Company also continues to receive regular revenues in Australia, including through execution of the 2-year, $3.8 million Electronic Warfare contract, that we are approximately halfway through.”

Droneshield also signed a collaboration agreement with the Australian Missile Corporation (AMC) in July, supporting AMC’s work in the Australian government’s $1 billion Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance (GWEO) enterprise, which is an effort to establish a local missile manufacturing industry.

The company is currently progressing discussions on supplying counterdrone technology to Ukraine, following the initial deployment of Droneshield technology earlier this year.

[Image: DroneShield]