It’s Been a Good Week for Counter-drone Players

Industry studies suggest the drone mitigation (or anti-drone) market will to grow to a billion-dollar industry within six years with predicted compound annual growth rate of 23.89 percent across 2018-22.

For two counter-drone firms, recent good news stakes their claims to a piece of that fiscal pie.

DroneShield

Australian-based DroneShield announced approval of the company’s product suite for placement on the American government’s General Services Administration Schedule.

The GSA supplies products for U.S. government offices and operates the Federal Acquisition Service (essentially the government’s purchasing department). The GSA Schedule governs how government agencies purchase goods and services.

With the designation, any federal, state or local government agencies may buy DroneShield’s product seamlessly from a pre-qualified catalog of products without going through a bidding process.

“[These] agencies are responding to the ever-increasing drone threats by taking proactive measures,” DroneShield CEO Oleg Vornik said.

“The placement of DroneShield’s product suite, including its drone detection and drone mitigation products, on the GSA Schedule and in the GSA Advantage catalogue now allows for instant and pre-approved procurement of the company’s products by governmental employees with appropriate authority, at a click of a button.”

RADA Electronic Industries

The British Army will use counter-drone tech from Israeli firm RADA Electronic Industries. The suite includes the company’s Multi-Mission Hemispheric Radars embedded in the Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Drone Dome counter-drone solution.

RADA’s MHR provides 360-degree surveillance and detects the drones at distances of 3-5 kilometers. Signal intelligence system along with electro-optical sensors, provide additional layers of threat classification and identification, while RF jamming provides the soft-kill layer of this solution.

“This win, in view of the advanced competition, demonstrates the leadership of our software defined, multi-mission AESA radars in the fields of very short-range air defense and [counter-drone] warfare,” RADA CEO Dov Sella said.

“It is the first sale of the Drone Dome solution, after intensive global business development efforts over the past two years by the joint team, to a leading global force such as the UK Army. As a result, we expect that sales of these radars, as part of the Drone Dome solution, will gain significant momentum in the coming quarters.”