Anti-drone (Counter-drone)

The National Football League (NFL), Justice Department, and FBI are urging Congress to act swiftly to bolster defenses against rogue drones threatening public safety at stadiums and critical facilities. Testifying before a House subcommittee on Tuesday, NFL security chief Cathy Lanier emphasized the urgency, stating, “The time to act to keep fans safe is now.”

OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, is taking a bold step into drone defense technology by partnering with Anduril Industries. This collaboration will focus on integrating artificial intelligence (AI) with national security by developing advanced counter-drone systems (C-UAS) to protect US and allied forces from evolving drone threats.

As rogue drone incidents escalate worldwide, D-Fend Solutions is stepping up to meet the challenge with cutting-edge technology and significant financial backing. The counter-drone specialist has announced a $31 million investment round led by Israel Growth Partners (IGP), alongside existing investor Vertex Ventures and new contributor Vertex Growth.

Responding to a surge in demand for counter-drone technology, Australia’s DroneShield is expanding its presence across Europe. The Sydney-based company says it has added a specialized team of experts to bolster its support network in Europe, with a strong focus on Denmark and Germany.

The US Army held an anti-drone shoot out at Fort Drum, New York earlier this month to test out various systems for taking down drone attacks. This comes as every nation seems to be increasing its drone war plans as continued use of them in battle aren’t slowing down.

On July 13, 2024, former President Donald Trump narrowly escaped an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Investigators now say the gunman utilized a DJI drone to conduct pre-attack reconnaissance, significantly aiding his ability to carry out the attack.

American defense technology company Anduril Industries and German technology group Rheinmetall are joining forces to design, develop, and produce new layered counter-drone air defense systems, primarily targeting the European markets.

Counter-drone specialist Dedrone has launched DedroneOnTheMove, a sophisticated mobile solution to detect, identify, and mitigate unauthorized drones in real-time.

Canada has ordered the dissolution of anti-drone solutions company Bluvec Technologies on national security grounds. Bluvec has developed a portable solution to detect drones and drone operators in real-time.

The UK Ministry of Defense (MoD) has unveiled a new direct-energy system it says can neutralize individual and swarms of drones using high-powered radio waves.

DroneShield has rolled out one of the largest updates to the DroneSentry-C2 command and control counter-drone platform. The update packs in a completely revamped user interface, smarter AI, and more powerful drone detection capabilities.

Leading counter-UAV tech company, Dedrone, has announced a huge surge in 2023 results with an over 300% increase in revenues, fueled by what it said were 16 new government contracts signed over the past year.

ParaZero, an Israel-based company that builds drone safety systems for commercial aircraft and urban air mobility vehicles, says it plans to develop anti-drone solutions. The pivot comes amid reports that counter-drone tech could become a $15 billion market by 2032.

In a bid to strengthen its global aviation security partnerships, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), an agency of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), recently conducted a counter-drone training in Croatia.

UK-based Unified Traffic Management (UTM) technology provider Altitude Angel has launched a new spinoff division, Prism Detect, focusing on airspace security. The division will focus on deploying fixed and mobile “ARROW” sensor towers that would help to enhance aerial detection and drone flight approvals to critical and sensitive infrastructure sites.

Counter-drone tech specialist DroneShield has released a new sensor-agnostic 3D data fusion engine called SensorFusionAI (SFAI). Deployed as a standalone module, SFAI can integrate into any third-party command-and-control system on a subscription basis and fuse data from varied anti-drone sensors.

Militias battling Myanmar’s military junta have been applying the lessons learned from Ukraine about deftly using small drones against a larger and far-better-equipped army and have now also increased their odds of completing aerial strikes by cracking the army’s UAV jamming tech.

With Ukraine battling dozens of incoming, explosive-packed Russian drones assaulting its cities every night, one additional concern in shooting those craft down is the considerable cost to the nation’s financially strapped defense reserves that involves – a pinch an Australian counter-UAV tech producer is now acting to solve.

Recurring drone disruptions – and the political and business fallout produced by them – that plagued Dublin Airport earlier this year may now be drawing to a close, thanks to clearance from Irish regulators for the platform to begin using counter-UAV assets to deal with the invasive craft.

Counter-drone specialist D-Fend Solutions has announced the launch of its latest product, EnforceAir2, which is flexible enough to be deployed using a portable backpack.

Ukraine will be getting reinforcements to its broadening patchwork of counter-drone assets with the delivery of Cortex Typhon systems from Norway’s Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace, estimated to be worth around £56 million ($70 million).