NSW-based DroneShield has had a good week.
On 22 July, the company released a record quarterly report to the ASX, including a record $2.1 million in cash inflows, its first breakeven operating quarter, an increased cash balance, a ‘substantial increase’ in US government business and securing a four-year framework agreement to supply EU police forces.
“The significance is that we are seeing increasing revenues and reducing costs, demonstrating market adoption of our products and the counter-drone industry continuing rapid growth (despite COVID-19),” CEO Oleg Vornik said to ADM. “This is about continuously growing revenues, while managing costs.”
On 23 July, the company announced that the US Air Force has awarded DroneShield a contract to deploy multiple units of the DroneSentry integrated detect-and-defeat counter-drone (C-UAS) system at the Grand Forks Air Force airbase in North Dakota, protected by the 319th Security Forces Squadron.
As part of the contract, the USAF acquired an option to acquire additional systems following the initial deployment. It is the company’s first USAF deployment.
“DroneShield was selected because our technology leverages Artificial Intelligence software and tracking/defeat automation that solves the 319th SFS problem statement with little to no impact on manning,” Vornik said.
On 24 July, DroneShield announced an order for the company’s RadarZero portable counter-drone system from a ‘significant European military.’
“At $100,000 in sales proceeds, this is an order for an evaluation, expected to lead to additional deployments with this Ministry of Defence customer,” Vornik said. “The importance of this sale is several-fold. First, this is our first order from this European military. Secondly, this is the first sale of a radar-only fixed site system powered by DroneShieldComplete, demonstrating the modularity of our offering.”
Finally, on 27 July, DroneShield announced that it has successfully completed a trial deployment of its DroneSentinel system at a mid-tier European airport.
“The airport market is a key segment for DroneShield, following high profile drone-related disruptions such as that has taken place at Gatwick Airport,” Vornik said. “We are now seeing airports, in particularly in Europe, mobilising their procurement selection processes towards wide rollouts of counter-drone systems.
“Each individual airport deployment is worth up to a multi-million dollar contract, including upfront and ongoing subscription payments, depending on the airport size and protection requirements. This successful trial forms a critical part of those selection processes.”