Droneshield hits first million dollar contract with $2m deal from EU gov’t for UAV detection

DroneShield (ASX:DRO) is continuing its strong entrance into the 2023 financial year with a big milestone: the first ever million dollar contract awarded to the company. 

Droneshield is to provide multiple DroneSentry UAV detection radar towers to a European government customer, with the entity in question left undisclosed. 

The DroneSentry towers will be backed up by Droneshield’s patent AI technology solutions, called Radiofrequency Sensor AI (‘RFAI,’ a trademarked name,) DroneOptID and DroneSentry-C2. 

All three software packages work together to detect UAVs autonomously. 

Growth strategy on track

Droneshield said earlier this year it expects to continue winning larger and larger contracts, and so far, that premonition has come true. 

Just this week, the company saw its first deployment of UAV detection tech to an undisclosed civilian airport in the US. 

The company also continues its relationship with the Australian and US Departments of Defence respectively, and peak Oz weapons distributor and manufacturer NIOA. 

Realising larger value: Management 

“This contract reinforces our position that to be a global leader in the rapidly growing counterdrone sector, a full suite of products is critical,” Droneshield CEO Oleg Vornik said. 

“This order continues our progression from developing the tech, to smaller sales…to presently realising larger contracts.” 

“There is a substantial near-term sales pipeline in place, and we are pleased to start converting it into contracts.” 

Commercial opportunity of airports

While it is not elaborated on by the company today who exactly the EU government customer is, it’s worth noting Droneshield’s latest contract saw its UAV detection solution installed at a civilian US airport. 

As far back as 2018, the commercial aviation sector has been preoccupied with the risk drones pose to flight paths. Generally, these incidents are related to drone pilots attempting to take photography or footage of airport takeoffs and landings.

If a drone is sucked into a jet engine, it poses the threat of catastrophic risk to the flight. For the same reason, airports install high-value bird repellent systems, using a mix of methods depending on local geography and environment.

One of the most well known case studies was a string of incidents at the UK’s Gatwick Airport, also in 2018, when hundreds of flights were delayed or cancelled due to the risk of nearby drones. 

Gatwick Airport, in turn, installed a 5km drone prohibition zone around the airport. 

The website Drone Detection System operates a news monitoring service covering drone incidents at airports and high-risk assets, and that secondary database lends weight to Droneshield’s case drone aviation incidents are on the increase.

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