DroneShield follows up US government order with European military contract

Drone-protection company DroneShield (ASX:DRO) has capped off a big week with another new contract announcement.

The company said it’s booked an order for its RadarZero portable counter-drone system from an as-yet unnamed member of the European Ministry of Defence.

The entity has agreed to pay DroneShield $100,000 to run a test of its system, which it expects will lead to “additional deployments” with the customer.

Shares in DRO rose by another 12 per cent in morning trade, after jumping by more than 30 per cent on Thursday.

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Platform opportunity

Along with being the first sale to a customer in the European Union, DroneShield CEO Oleg Vornik said the deal was important because it was evidence of the company’s capacity to become a platform service provider.

“This is the first sale of a radar-only fixed site system powered by DroneShieldComplete, demonstrating the modularity of our offering,” Vornik said.

By deploying DroneShieldComplete, customers will have the option to add additional sensor loads which can then be integrated to the underlying support framework.

Weighing 1.25kg, the RadarZero product links back to the DroneShieldComplete system and can operate in temperatures ranging from -40 degrees celsius to +75c, “enabling effective detection and tracking of nefarious drones”, DroneShield said.

US Air Force contract

The deal follows an additional $US200,000 (~$280,000) contract with the US military announced yesterday, which will see DroneShield supply its detect-and-defeat counter-drone system at the Grand Forks Air Force airbase in North Dakota, US.

Vornik said DroneShield’s fixed-site sensory system won the contract by satisfying the Air Force’s brief to create a tracking system that worked effectively with “little to no impact on manning”.

The US Air Force “has a substantial requirement for the protection of its bases, in the US and forward deployments, and we look forward to continuing to
support the service members and the expanded rollout of our solutions for their protection”, DroneShield said.