Image provided by DroneShield.

Australian company DroneShield have fulfilled a European order for a slew of their drone detection and countermeasure products to develop a demonstration hub in the Netherlands.

Against the backdrop of the first recorded air crash caused by a drone, DroneShield appears to be ramping up their European operations, with a partner looking to establish a demonstration hub in the home of the NATO Joint Force Headquarters. The company says the move is in response to ‘significant interest’ by Dutch and international customers.

The company’s core DroneSentinel product integrates radar, radio frequency, acoustic, thermal and optical sensor detection, which DroneShield calls ‘all the key technologically viable detection methods that currently exist.’ These methods are paired with a radio-frequency jamming system for interception of errant drones, for use in theatres where that is lawful. The European order also includes DroneGuns, the company’s rifle-shaped jamming device.

DroneShield’s DroneGun Tactical rifle-shaped jammer device. Image provided by DroneShield.

DroneShield CEO Oleg Vornik welcomed the expansion of operations.

“We are delighted to have established a European demonstration hub for our products in one of the key NATO countries. Governmental end-users, both military and civil, throughout Europe, are currently largely helpless against the threat of intentional or unintentional drone misuse,” he said.

“As the density of the drone ‘population’ has increased dramatically, the frequency and the severity of incidents have gone up. As a result, governmental end-users have now recognised the need to have tools at their disposal to detect and mitigate drones.”

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has predicted a ‘stable’ number of drone-related incidents in Australian airspace, and though a drone was initially reported to have been implicated in a collision with a light plane near Adelaide in July 2017, the ATSB found that the collision was more likely to have been with an unfortunate flying fox.

Artist’s rendering of a DroneShield Sentinel on site at an airport. Image provided by DroneShield.