Emerging Technology
PR Newswire | July 18, 2023
DroneShield is pleased to announce it has received a record $33 million order from a U.S. Government agency. The award consists of DroneShield C-UAS / counterdrone equipment and multi-year services.
DroneShield's U.S. CEO, Matt McCrann, commented: "We're honored to receive this award and support this customer. This award is a result of their trust in DroneShield and our solutions, and reflects our commitment to their mission."
"We're proud of our team's efforts, the increasing value we've delivered to our customers worldwide, and are excited about continuing to support and grow the business as we look towards 2024 and beyond."
The company expects to receive full payment of the order prior to the end of 2023 and anticipates this year to be another record year, by a wide margin, following the previous record year in 2022.
This latest order follows a $9.9 million order announced earlier this month, from another customer among the Five Eyes community.
DroneShield current order backlog (committed orders in the process of fulfilment) stands at a record $62 million, with a current pipeline of over $200 million across more than 80 opportunities.
About DroneShield Limited
DroneShield provides Artificial Intelligence based platforms for protection against advanced threats such as drones and autonomous systems. We offer customers bespoke counterdrone (or counter-UAS) and electronic warfare solutions and off-the-shelf products designed to suit a variety of terrestrial, maritime or airborne platforms. Our customers include military, intelligence community, Government, law enforcement, critical infrastructure, and airports globally.
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Emerging Technology
PR Newswire | July 06, 2023
Darkhive Inc., a San Antonio-based autonomous uncrewed systems developer specializing in defense and public safety solutions, announced the award of a $5M Phase III Small Business Innovation Research contract with the US Air Force AFWERX Prime to integrate and test next generation autonomy software to a variety of uncrewed aerial system platforms
"We're very excited to be participating in this program," said John Goodson, CEO of Darkhive. "An open government-owned framework optimized for rapidly integrating, testing and securely deploying software to edge systems has been at the center of our mission from the beginning. The Government and industry team supporting this effort is phenomenal, we're honored to have the opportunity to contribute to solving some very hard problems for DoD and, most importantly, delivering for the end-user on the front lines."
Founded in 2021, Darkhive has placed an emphasis on developing affordable, US-manufactured uncrewed systems with open hardware and software interfaces to provide life-saving situational awareness at home and abroad. "In order to achieve dynamic, autonomous systems both within the US Department of Defense (DoD) and with foreign partners, we have to break away from fragmented, vendor-locked approaches to software development and secure deployment on uncrewed systems," said Steve Turner, CTO of Darkhive. "By establishing open, accessible, discoverable, and adaptable interfaces, we can unlock the potential for cohesive, collaborative behavior. The deployment and security of software have experienced significant advancements over the past decade, but these transformative changes have yet to be fully realized in uncrewed platforms and meeting evolving end-user requirements. We are thrilled to collaborate with the US Air Force and industry partners to overcome these challenges and spearhead a revolution in autonomous systems."
Darkhive has previously been awarded contracts with the Defense Innovation Unit National Security Innovation Capital contract, multiple Small Business Innovation Research with the Air Force, and a Small Business Technology Transfer award partnered with the University of Alaska at Fairbanks.
About AFWERX
AFWERX is an Air Force Research Laboratory Directorate that connects innovators across government, industry and academia. Through innovation and collaboration with our nation's top subject-matter experts, AFWERX harnesses the power of ingenuity of internal talent while expanding technology, talent and transition partnerships for rapid and affordable commercial and military capability.
About AFRL
Sole organization leading the planning & execution of USAF & USSF science & technology programs. Orchestrates a world-wide government, industry & academia coalition in the discovery, development & delivery of a wide range of revolutionary technology. Provides leading-edge warfighting capabilities keeping air, space and cyberspace forces the world's best. Employs 10,800 military, civilian, and contractor personnel at 17 research sites executing an annual $4B budget. For more information, visit: www.afresearchlab.com.
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Government Business
PR Newswire | July 05, 2023
DroneShield Ltd has been awarded a follow-on 2-year R&D contract with a total value of $9.9 million by a Five Eyes Department of Defence (DoD). Approximately $4.5 million is due in the September and December 2023 quarters. Five Eyes refers to the defence/intelligence alliance between the US, Canada, UK, Australia and NZ.
The award follows DroneShield materially completing the $3.8 million contract announced 4 June 2021 with the DoD, with a final milestone payment expected this month.
Oleg Vornik, DroneShield's CEO, commented, "Follow-on contracts are the ultimate customer measure of our performance. As an Australian sovereign industrial capability business, DroneShield is proud and pleased to continue undertaking multi-year contracts of increasing size with this customer."
"This is the largest long-term contract received by DroneShield to date, significantly larger than the earlier, $3.8 million contract. The 2-year term locks in cash receipts over a period of time. Further larger contracts are anticipated following completion of this phase."
"In the current uncertain geopolitical environment, there is a significant focus by the Five Eyes Governments to procure from defence industrial capability champions within their network of countries. Having deep engineering and research capability, TRL9 products and a track record of working with Defence, places DroneShield in a favourable position for ongoing work."
Operational Update
Following a strong $7 million cash receipts 1Q23 quarter, DroneShield is on track for an all-time record 2Q23 quarter and continuing on a trajectory for another record year for cash receipts in 2023. Further detail will be provided in the next 4C quarterly, due to be released later in July.
Significant progress on manufacturing, operations and inventory scale-up to support additional anticipated orders for remainder of 2023. DroneShield is currently finalizing the location for a larger industrial site to move its Sydney operations to enable the growth.
With the $11 million contract announced in December now fully delivered and paid for, DroneShield is progressing the inventory build of the second $11 million order announced in January, expected to be delivered later this year.
Current order book (committed and binding customer purchase orders) of approximately $29 million, an all-time record.
Over $200 million qualified opportunities pipeline (in addition to the order book), across approximately 80 projects.
Ongoing record demand for counterdrone / C-UAS equipment, underscored by the events in Ukraine and increasing defence and security budgets globally.
In addition to military and intelligence communities, significant engagement with critical infrastructure plants, airports and other civilian customers.
About DroneShield Limited
DroneShield provides Artificial Intelligence powered platforms for protection against advanced threats such as drones and autonomous systems. We offer customers custom counterdrone (or counter-UAS) solutions and off-the-shelf products, designed to deliver highly effective capabilities for multiple missions and use cases. Our customers include military, government, law enforcement, critical infrastructure, and airports globally.
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