DroneShield Ltd (ASX:DRO) (“DroneShield” or the “Company”) is pleased to advise that its full product suite has been approved for placement on, and placed on, the GSA Schedule.

The GSA (General Services Administration) is an agency of the United States government that supplies products for U.S. government offices and operates the Federal Acquisition Service (the FAS). As part of this effort, it maintains the GSA Schedule, which other U.S. government agencies can use to buy goods and services. Procurement managers from various U.S. government agencies can seamlessly make purchases of the products that are on the GSA Schedule, knowing that the terms of such purchases have been preset between the vendor and the GSA. The process is further streamlined through GSA Advantage, an online government purchasing service run by the GSA in order to provide a streamlined and efficient purchasing portal for U.S. governmental agency procurement. The official description of GSA Advantage refers to it as “the Federal Government’s premier online shopping superstore.”

As part of the placement on the GSA Schedule and GSA Advantage for federal procurement, DroneShield’s products have also been approved as qualifying for purchase through GSA Advantage by state and local governments.

This is an important step for the Company as it allows any U.S. federal agency and U.S. state and local government agencies, to buy DroneShield’s product seamlessly, from a pre-qualified catalogue of products, without going through a competitive and bespoke process.

DroneShield CEO Oleg Vornik commented “United States federal, state and local governmental agencies are responding to the ever-increasing drone threats by taking proactive measures. The placement of DroneShield’s product suite, including its drone detection and drone mitigation products, on the GSA Schedule and in the GSA Advantage catalogue now allows for instant and pre-approved procurement of the Company’s products by governmental employees with appropriate authority, at a click of a button.”

TORONTO, August 8, 2018 (Newswire.com) – The Sky Guys, Canada’s top drone operator, announced this week they have been granted a Special Flight Operations Certificate (SFOC), a permit for commercial Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) flights, for its landmark development project, the DX-3 “Vanguard”. The permit allows The Sky Guys to perform testing that will put the DX-3 through critical elements of integrated flight testing, including performance benchmarking and evaluating Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL), transition, forward-flight, endurance, systems safety, and various aspects of human factors.

“This SFOC is a testament to the industry-leading engineering design and flight operations expertise at The Sky Guys,” noted Jeremy Wang, CTO of The Sky Guys, “Besides its outstanding performance specs, the DX-3 Vanguard comes with safety features normally found in military and commercial aviation. The system is also proudly designed and assembled in Canada, so we have tight control over the IP and production methods that make it unique around the world.”

The SFOC approval comes after months of testing and evaluation in a controlled laboratory environment. The flight testing will be conducted at Toronto Markham Airport CNU8, consisting of Line of Sight (LOS) and simulated Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) only.

“The revolutionary DX-3 ‘Vanguard’ is a giant leap forward in the capabilities of today’s commercially available UAS platforms,” stated Adam Sax, President and CEO of The Sky Guys. “Capable of flying for over 24hrs and 1500km in range, the DX-3 utilizes military-grade technology and sensors to carry out missions in heavy industry and military environments. Its ability to take off and land vertically eliminates the need for runways or launch rails typically required with similar UAS platforms only available to the defense sector.”

“We’ve been working closely with partners in industry, law enforcement, and defense to define test protocols that will establish the DX-3 as the forerunner in NATO Class 1 / DoD Group 2 class UAVs,” concluded Sax.

For more information, visit www.theskyguys.ca

DroneShield Ltd (ASX:DRO) (“DroneShield” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that its DroneGun TacticalTM product has been certified as compliant for human exposure, in connection with requests by potential governmental end-users, in relation to their procurement processes.

OneTech, a specialist SAR (Specific Absorption Rate) laboratory for global certifications, has certified DroneShield’s DroneGun TacticalTM as compliant with the ARPANSA EN 50566 and EN 50663 (Australian and New Zealand Communications and Media Authority requirements for human exposure to radio frequencies) within the specific frequency bands of operation which cross references to the international ICNIRP standard.

The certification was obtained in response to the DroneGun TacticalTM product advancing through procurement processes with a number of major defence and other government agencies internationally, for which this was a requirement requested by several agencies.

The certification follows DroneGun MKIITM safety for human exposure certification in December 2017, and DroneSentry airport compliance certification in May 2018.

Images: DroneGun Tactical at recent evaluations by the South Korean military.

• New space endeavor draws on company’s unique and diverse history of innovation and high-altitude drone flight experience

• Drone prototypes have passed rigorous tests in simulated Mars atmosphere

• Final Mars-bound helicopter now in production at JPL

MONROVIA, Calif., July 3, 2018 – What does a company do when its trailblazing and diverse innovations for nearly half a century have redefined how the world drives and flies?  When its many technological “firsts” include the first practical electric car, flying the Nano Hummingbird drone, record-setting, solar-powered aircraft flights in near space, and reshaping the battlefield with portable, hand-held, tactical drones and loitering munitions?

It takes on another world.

At a briefing held Wednesday at New York City’s NASDAQ Marketsite, AeroVironment, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVAV) revealed its critical role in collaborating with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA/JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. to build the drone helicopter recently selected by NASA/JPL’s Mars Exploration Program, and displayed a model of the Mars Helicopter, which is planned to fly on Mars in less than three years.

“AeroVironment’s deep, rich and diverse history of innovation combined with our experience with near-space aircraft like Pathfinder and Helios make us uniquely suited to collaborate with NASA and JPL on this historic, interplanetary venture,” said AeroVironment President and Chief Executive Officer Wahid Nawabi.

Flying at nearly 100,000 feet on Earth is much like flying on the surface of Mars – same air density – so AeroVironment used airfoil design principles and simulation tools the technology company learned from record high-altitude flights and incorporated them into the Mars helicopter design.

“The Mars Helicopter effort also benefits from the ultra-lightweight and ultra-high-precision methods integral to our nano projects that have been developed in our MacCready Works laboratory, where we’ve assembled a dedicated team of the industry’s brightest and most experienced thinkers to solve some of today’s greatest technological challenges,” Nawabi said.

AeroVironment first developed subscale Mars helicopter prototypes to test and demonstrate the feasibility of lift in the thin Martian atmosphere.  Then in May 2016, AeroVironment delivered to NASA/JPL a Mars Helicopter rotor and landing gear prototype that was integrated with a JPL-developed controller and demonstrated free flight in a simulated Mars atmosphere, proving that it is possible to fly on the Red Planet.  Next, AeroVironment delivered major helicopter subsystems in the fall of 2017 for integration into Mars-representative engineering development models.  JPL built two Engineering Development Model Mars Helicopters, integrating the AeroVironment rotor, landing gear, fuselage shell and solar panel substrate together with JPL-developed fuselage composed of flight avionics, onboard power, telecom, flight control and sensors into two models.

One of the development models was used for flight demonstration in JPL’s large 25-foot space simulator, and the other for environmental testing, including thermal tests to ensure the vehicle can endure the frigid Mars nights, and vibration tests to make sure it is rugged enough to survive launch.  Both vehicles passed the rigorous tests, paving the way for the development and fabrication of the final, Mars-bound version.

AeroVironment is currently building the flight versions of their subsystems which will be integrated with other subsystems into the vehicle that JPL is building. The plan is for JPL to then install the finished Mars Helicopter into the Mars 2020 rover for its ride to a Martian landing site, still to be determined.

The Mars Helicopter project is led by NASA JPL with team members across JPL, AeroVironment, NASA Ames and NASA Langley. The AeroVironment team has worked closely with NASA rotorcraft experts at the NASA Ames and Langley research centers and with JPL electrical, mechanical, materials, vehicle flight controls, and systems engineers. AeroVironment’s contributions to the first Mars drone include design and development of the helicopter’s airframe and major subsystems, including its rotor, rotor blades, hub and control mechanism hardware. The company also developed and built high-efficiency, lightweight propulsion motors, power electronics, landing gear, load-bearing structures, and the thermal enclosure for NASA/JPL’s avionics, sensors, and software systems.

The press briefing featured high-impact visuals and models of many of AeroVironment’s innovations, including the Snipe™ nano drone – the latest tactical UAS innovation from AeroVironment that provides today’s defenders with critical information whenever and wherever it is needed – and the Switchblade® Lethal Miniature Aerial Missile System (LMAMS).  AeroVironment recently received Switchblade orders from the U.S. Army and U.S. Marines Corps through Urgent Needs Statements.