DRONE DEFENCE SYSTEM SPARKS OVERSEAS INTEREST
DEFENCE company Droneshield is gearing up for a huge year following its successful completion of a number of trials in 2017 and the signing of a government tender with Paraguay.
The Sydney-based business is also about to launch a new counter drone product within months and is hopeful its drone zapping DroneGun will soon be in use on Australian soil protecting assets like the Harbour Bridge, maximum security prisons and the Opera House. Chief executive Oleg Vornik said the freshly signed tender with the Paraguayan Ministry of National Defence to supply a single DroneGun jammer for an infield evaluation was a positive step towards a potentially massive order.
“We are just waiting for the relative permits on our side to be complete and then we will organise initial shipment,” he said.
“While the initial win is insignificant – we are basically talking about a pilot project – the governments usually take that (DroneGun) and play with it for a while and on the back of that you get larger orders.”
He said interest in the DroneGun, which protects infrastructure assets and people from surveillance or explosive laden drones by jamming the control signals, was strong from military forces and governments all over the world.
“We have been having an immense amount of engagement in the United States,” he said, saying there was interest from the US army, navy, air force and special operations command.
“Each one of those agencies have people who are looking at counter drone solutions, and they invite manufacturers in the market to hold demonstrations with their products.”
The DroneGun Mk II has also recently had a safety seal of approval stamped on the device by a global regulator, which says the radio frequencies the gun uses are not harmful to humans.
Mr Vornik said this certification was a valuable step which can help Droneshield progress through complex military and defence procurement processes by differentiating itself from competition.
“There are a lot of people who say they have a counter drone product – but really what they have is a concept – there are a lot of third world country products but the issue with them is performance and safety,” he said.
The company is planning to launch a new counter drone product during the first quarter of this year.