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XTEND Brings the Metaverse to the Modern Battlefield, as it Launches its Next Generation XTENDER Tactical sUAS system, with Resilient Indoor-Outdoor Navigation Capability and Integrated, Proprietary Drone-Teaming Technology

Friday, February 25th, 2022

For the first time, the system’s unique capabilities enable combat soldiers to perform entire missions remotely, with just a few hours of training, actively affecting the operational scenario, with zero contact with hostile forces.

17 Feb. 2022, Washington. XTEND – a company specializing in human-guided autonomous drone operating systems for military forces and law enforcement agencies – is launching the second generation of its indoor tactical sUAS system – the XTENDER.

The revolutionary micro-tactical ISR platform, with built-in resilient indoor-outdoor navigation and AI capabilities, enables remote completion of missions. Powered by “Skylord”, XTEND’s unique human-centric operating system, the XTENDER features complete localization and situational awareness, using the most advanced virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) technologies, coupled with advanced AI and machine learning flight algorithms, bringing the metaverse to the modern battlefield.

The new XTENDER boasts powerful edge computing capabilities, providing onboard sensor fusion and localization that enable the drone to easily fly in any environment. The new onboard mission computer also enables the drone to run AI-driven applications, providing the operator with real-life actionable intelligence, such as target classification, verification, and tracking.

Using patented Drone-Teaming and Mark & Fly technologies, both integrated into the operating system, the new generation of the XTENDER enables multiple drones to enter a remote target site carrying various payloads, perform the required tasks with extreme precision, and seamlessly exit, regardless of any indoor-outdoor transition limitations or GNSS-denied locations.

With the second-generation XTENDER, any operator – even with zero flight experience – can perform accurate recon and data collection tasks – such as close-quarters combat (CQB) clearance, IED and tripwire identification, and enemy detection – in complex urban environments, without any physical contact with hostile forces.

Made in the U.S., the small, wearable lightweight XTENDER has a natural hand-gesture controller and is affordable, versatile, and easy to use, with minimal training and maintenance.

“Having deployed UAS in combat for 20 years, we are excited about XTENDER because, for the first time, forces can now carry out indoor missions without approaching the combat arena, and without putting themselves at risk,” says Steve Ball, Sales Operations Manager of XTEND. “This platform applies the wealth of knowledge held by our team, which is 100% comprised of army and Special Operations Forces veterans. It is this authentic insider view of forces’ experience in the battlefield that makes our solutions so successful.”

The XTENDER has already been operationally deployed by the US DoD, the Israeli MOD, and in other countries. XTEND is now expanding its activity in the United Kingdom as well, another major market for its innovative, combat-proven systems.

www.XTEND.me

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State of Texas Signs Contract Framework with DroneShield

Sunday, February 20th, 2022

DroneShield Limited (ASX:DRO) (“DroneShield” or the “Company”) an Australian/US global leader in Artificial Intelligence based platforms for protection against advanced threats such as drones and autonomous systems, has entered into a contract framework with the State of Texas for simplified purchase of its solutions by state and local government, education, and other public entities.

The contract has been signed following a substantive due diligence process over the past 18 months. It is now active and valid for a 5-year acquisition period until February 2027.

By adding DroneShield to its state-wide law enforcement procurement vehicle, the Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR) provides a streamlined purchasing path to any Texas agency requiring immediate protection from the threat of rogue drones.

DroneShield DroneSentry mobile solution deployed for a U.S. Government customer

DroneShield’s DIR contract products include eight-week threat-assessment packages for agencies who need to evaluate the quantity and types of drones operating in their area, as well as turn-key counter-drone detection, classification, tracking, and defeat solutions. DroneShield’s comprehensive counter-drone products deliver hand-held protection, go-anywhere vehicle-mounted defense, and persistent long-range security for fixed sites.

“DroneShield has heard loudly and clearly that state and local government agencies need immediate and reliable protection from drones operated by bad actors. It’s a rapidly increasing threat,” explained DroneShield’s US CEO Matt McCrann. “We are pleased that our contract with DIR will enable accelerated deployment options of industry-leading counter-drone protection to Texas government end users.”

Global defense, law enforcement, and commercial entities rely on DroneShield solutions. US customers include state agencies, the Department of State, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defense, and nuclear agencies.

Additional information about the contract is available at dir.texas.gov/contracts/dir-cpo-4917. Additional solutions are also available via DroneShield’s GSA Schedule 47QSWA19D001M, accessible to state buyers eligible for the GSA Cooperative Purchasing Program.

Additional information about the system can be found at www.droneshield.com.

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AeroVironment Awarded $8.5 Million Puma AE Unmanned Aircraft Systems Foreign Military Sales Contract for U.S. Ally

Thursday, February 17th, 2022

• Portable, rugged Puma 3 All Environment (AE) unmanned aircraft system provides immediate tactical reconnaissance capabilities for land and maritime operations

• Foreign Military Sales program promotes interoperability among U.S. and allied forces for joint operations

The Puma 3 All Environment (AE) unmanned aircraft system operates autonomously, providing persistent intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting data. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Bill Dodge/Released) Disclaimer: The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement.

ARLINGTON, Va., Feb. 15, 2022 – AeroVironment, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVAV) a global leader in intelligent, multi-domain robotic systems, today announced it received a $8,541,428 firm-fixed-price U.S. Department of Defense Foreign Military Sales (FMS) contract award on Jan. 27, 2022 to provide Puma™ 3 AE small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), initial spares packages, training and support to an allied nation. Delivery is anticipated by November 2022.

“Combat-proven, versatile and reliable, Puma 3 AE provides persistent situational awareness, critical force protection and force multiplication capabilities to small tactical units conducting operations in salt water, fresh water or on land,” said Trace Stevenson, AeroVironment vice president and product line general manager for small UAS.

AeroVironment’s Puma 3 AE delivers mission critical intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) in all environments. Puma 3 AE has a wingspan of 9.2 feet (2.8 meters), weighs 15 pounds (6.8 kilograms) and can operate for up to 37.2 miles (60 kilometers) with AeroVironment’s Long-Range Tracking Antenna (LRTA). Multi-mission capable, operators can swap between Mantis™ i45 and the enhanced night variant Mantis i45 N for day, night and low-light operations. Puma 3 AE is launchable by hand, bungee, rail, or vehicle, and recoverable by deep-stall landing, providing class-leading capabilities in challenging environments around the world.

AeroVironment’s small UAS comprises the majority of all unmanned aircraft in the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) inventory, and its rapidly growing international customer base numbers more than 50 allied governments. To learn more, visit www.avinc.com.

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AeroVironment Awarded $10.5 Million Puma LE Unmanned Aircraft Systems Foreign Military Sales Contract for U.S. Ally

Tuesday, February 15th, 2022

• Puma LE (Long Endurance) provides Group 2 capabilities in a Group 1 footprint and features up to 6.5 hours of flight endurance for an extended time on station – all in a two-case mission packout

• Customer joins growing number of allied government forces fielding AeroVironment’s advanced, battle-proven small unmanned aircraft systems

• Foreign Military Sales program promotes interoperability among U.S. and allied forces for joint operations

Puma LE weighs only 23.5 pounds (10.7 kilograms) and is launchable by hand or bungee, making it easy to deploy and recover in any environment. (Image: AeroVironment, Inc.)

ARLINGTON, Va., Feb. 9, 2022 – AeroVironment, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVAV) a global leader in intelligent, multi-domain robotic systems, today announced it received a $10,534,348 firm-fixed-price U.S. Department of Defense Foreign Military Sales (FMS) contract award on Jan. 21, 2022. The contract includes the delivery of Puma™ LE small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) over a six-year period to an allied nation, as well as add-on air vehicle kits, initial spares packages, training and support.

“With the adoption of Puma LE and other AeroVironment small UAS, customers are equipping their frontline forces with the ability to see and operate beyond the horizon, gathering on-demand intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance that can ultimately save lives,” said Trace Stevenson, AeroVironment vice president and product line general manager for small UAS.

Weighing only 23.5 pounds (10.7 kilograms), the ultra-lightweight Puma LE is hand or bungee launchable. The aircraft comes equipped with the Mantis™ i45 gimbaled EO/IR sensor suite and secondary payload bay with dedicated power supply and Ethernet for a total payload capacity of 5.5 pounds (2.5 kilograms). On-board batteries provide up to 6.5 hours of flight endurance with an operational range of 37.2 miles (60 kilometers) when used with AeroVironment’s Long-Range Tracking Antenna (LRTA) and Puma Smart 2500 Battery.

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DroneShield Successfully Integrates with US Govt Team Awareness Kit (TAK)

Thursday, February 3rd, 2022

DroneShield (ASX:DRO), an Australian-U.S. global leader in Artificial Intelligence based platforms for protection against advanced threats such as drones and autonomous systems, has today announced that their Sensor and Command-and-Control platforms are now fully compliant with the U.S. Government’s Team Awareness Kit (TAK). The TAK system, originally developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), is used extensively throughout the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and Allied forces.

This critical integration allows for operators in the field to receive detailed threat detection information to improve their situational awareness, in a common format compliant across a range of systems. DroneShield sensors including RfPatrol, RfOne and DroneSentry-X are now able to stream data directly to TAK servers providing both command Operations Centres and field operators access to the real-time sensor information and intelligence.

In addition, DroneShield’s Command-and-Control (C2) platform, DroneSentry-C2, which utilizes the latest in AI and Machine Learning (AI/ML) and Sensor Fusion technologies, is compliant with the TAK communication standard. This enables operators to take full advantage of DroneShield’s distributed sensor network, integrating data from multiple sensors and sensor modalities including radar, radio frequency (RF) and electro-optical (EO) and thermal recognition to provide a seamless and integrated picture of threat assessments onto their personal TAK device. Both DroneShield sensors and the C2 system have implemented the Cursor-on-Target (CoT) protocol as the means of sending information to TAK and interoperable systems. The CoT protocol is widely used amongst US prime contractor platforms and their U.S. DoD, Federal Law Enforcement, and Allied Forces customers.

DroneShield Chief Technology Officer, Angus Bean, commented, “Battlespace is rapidly evolving, and robotic platforms continue to be both a central capability and a threat to Allied forces. It is critical that DroneShield technology can meaningfully contribute to building this battlespace awareness. Common operating platforms such as TAK empower wide-ranging technologies and to generate a cross-compatible system of sensors and operating platforms.”

Additional information about the system can be found at www.droneshield.com.

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DroneShield Releases Upgraded Capabilities via Firmware Across its C-UAS Devices for Quicker and More Effective Detection

Friday, January 28th, 2022

Global Leader in Drone Defense Tech / Counter-UAS, Electronic Warfare and Signals Intelligence Shares Details on Next-Level RfPatrol, RfOne and DroneSentry-X Devices.

Updates To Be Rolled Out to Devices Over the Next Week; Given Immediate Urgency Following Recent Uptick of Drone Strikes.

Sydney and Virginia (January 27, 2022) – DroneShield (ASX:DRO), an Australian/US global leader in Artificial Intelligence based platforms for protection against advanced threats such as drones and autonomous systems, has today announced an enhancement of their AI engine through the release of updated RF Detection devices. The instruments improved include the RfPatrol, RfOne and DroneSentry-X drone detection and tracking platforms.

DroneShield capabilities are used to protect Military, Government, Law Enforcement, Critical Infrastructure, Commercial and VIPs throughout the world. Key products such as the DroneGun Tactical, RfPatrol, DroneGun MKIII, DroneSentry-X, RfOne MKII and software like DroneSentry-C2 are used to detect and eliminate unmanned threats.

Key aspects of the firmware update include the following:

• Seamless Integration: Introduction of Cursor-on-Target message output, allowing sensors to seamlessly integrate into the major platforms such as ATAK (Android Team Awareness Kit)

• Increased Detection Speed: A 30% detection speed improvement. This means the time between initial detection scan and alerting is dramatically reduced.

• Improved AI-Model: The AI model has been trained specifically for weaker or obstructed signals, greatly increasing the detection range performance of all devices.

• Elevated Frequency Range: An additional frequency band is now fully operational, supporting a number of key protocol detectors specific to this band.

“As we’ve seen in recent events, the use of drones and UAS escalates and increases destruction in situations of high tension- with no barrier of distance,” stated Oleg Vornik, DroneShield CEO. “Detection is even more vital than before.”

The updates will be rolling out across DroneShield devices globally in the next week, with heightened urgency given recent uptick in drone strikes in the Middle East and elsewhere. The technology upgrade is validated by deployments with the US Air Force and Australian Army.

Additional information about the system can be found at www.droneshield.com.

Posted in Press Release, UAS | 1 Comment »

Darley Defense to Showcase ANAFI USA Mil UAS at SHOT Show

Friday, January 14th, 2022

Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) Tailored Logistics Support (TLS) Vendor Darley Defense will exhibit numerous technologies at next week’s SHOT Show in Las Vegas, including the ANAFI USA Mil Unmanned Aerial System which was developed as part of the Defense Innovation Unit’s (DIU) Blue small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS) project.

It features a 21MP camera with 33x zoom capable of panning from -90° to 90° and with a wide-angle lens of 110° FOV. It can also record 4K HDR video. For more info visit blog.darleydefense.com/a-uas-built-to-serve-dhs.

See the UAS and other equipment in booth #32011.

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DroneShield Appoints Matt McCrann as its US CEO

Wednesday, January 12th, 2022

DroneShield Limited (ASX:DRO) (“DroneShield” or the “Company”), a global leader in Counter-UAS and Artificial Intelligence based security technology, has announced the appointment of Matt McCrann as Chief Executive Officer of its wholly owned U.S. subsidiary DroneShield LLC.

Matt McCrann joined DroneShield LLC in 2019 as Vice President of Sales and will lead the growth and expansion of the company’s U.S. based organization.

“The customers we serve and the problems we solve make the work at DroneShield both exciting and rewarding,” McCrann stated. “We have a strong, adaptable team as demonstrated by our revenue and company growth over the past two years. Our commitment to our customers and the strength of our engineering have allowed us to become the leader in counter-drone and we continue to push the envelope with our Artificial Intelligence and Electronic Warfare capabilities. I’m honored to accept this appointment and eager to continue our commitment to our partners across defense, homeland security, and law enforcement.”

Oleg Vornik, CEO of Sydney based DroneShield Limited (the listed parent company), commented, “Matt has done outstanding work since joining the DroneShield team, positioning our counter-UAS, Electronic Warfare and ISR solutions with a wide range of high-profile Defense and government agencies, while rapidly scaling our team and operations in the U.S. This appointment greatly aligns with DroneShield’s commitment to serving the U.S. market and will enable DroneShield to support at scale our customer base in the U.S.”

Prior to joining DroneShield, McCrann held Director level leadership positions at rapid growth scale-ups, successfully building and leading business units serving the Defense and Intelligence markets. McCrann is a veteran of the U.S. Navy and Intelligence Community and has also performed in management roles across both engineering and operations, during a career spanning more than two decades.

DroneShield develops advanced layered solutions for handheld, on-the-move, and facility detection and protection against unmanned system threats. DroneShield also recently announced DoD Artificial Intelligence Contract and first of its kind ACMA exemption to undertake Electronic Warfare research.

Additional information about DroneShield is available at www.droneshield.com.

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