Hot Money Monday: Elsight's hot streak continues as Halo becomes a battlefield essential

News.com.au

4 days ago

Elsight soars as defence tech takes the spotlight
Halo racks up $22.9m in deals from one customer alone
Battle-tested comms box becomes must-have for drones
With tensions between Iran and Israel at boiling point, defence tech is once again back in the spotlight.
And if you've been watching the ASX small cap space over the past month, you'll know Elsight (ASX:ELS) has been on an absolute tear.
The stock has been a standout tech performer, up by 140% in the last 30 days.
And it's not without reason.
While some stocks rally on hype, Elsight's run is being driven by something much more tangible: contracts. Real ones. Deals that add zeroes to revenues and turn defence buyers into repeat customers.
Driving all this momentum is its flagship, Halo – a smart little box that's quickly becoming the must-have nervous system for unmanned defence platforms across the globe.
Halo isn't a drone. It doesn't fly, shoot or spy. What it does is make sure everything that does fly, shoot or spy stays connected.
For autonomous systems, especially Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) missions, stable, real-time communication is everything. Drop the link and it's game over, literally.
Halo solves that problem. It's a compact, lightweight, carrier-agnostic connectivity device that blends 4G, 5G, satellite, and radio frequency links into one seamless, always-on connection.
If one network drops out, Halo reroutes traffic across another before anyone even notices.
And it doesn't just react, it predicts. Thanks to what Elsight calls its '6th Sense' AI, the system constantly monitors signal quality and reroutes data in real-time to avoid interruptions.
And the tech is battle-proven. Halo has clocked over 200,000 flight hours, with its AES-256 encryption ensuring secure, mission-critical comms. In contested environments, where reliability and cybersecurity are non-negotiable, Halo has earned its stripes.
So it's no surprise defence customers are doubling, even tripling, down.
Winning deals
Since March, Elsight has been stacking contract wins, all with one European defence OEM.
What started as a modest production order of around US$300,000 has now exploded into a full-blown rollout across 2025.
That first March deal was the warm-up. Then came a US$4.28 million order in April, followed by US$5.35 million in May.
And on June 4, Elsight locked in another US$5.08 million, bringing the total 2025 commitment from this single customer to US$14.7 million, or around $22.9 million.
That's a sixfold jump on last year's revenue, all from one relationship that's still growing.
'This new order is an even stronger signal of market validation, not only from our direct customer but from the multiple defence end-users now relying on Halo across operational theatres,' said Yoav Amitai, the CEO of Elsight.
But this isn't just a one-off spike or some flashy headline.
The OEM is buying more Halo units because their own clients are stacking up; each new downstream customer is demanding Halo installed into their unmanned systems.
And that kind of momentum feeds itself.
The more platforms Halo lands on, the more entrenched it becomes. And in defence, once your tech is trusted and embedded, it tends to stay put for a long, long time.
Battlefield proven
The macro picture supports this shift too. Modern warfare is increasingly being shaped by unmanned platforms.
They're cheaper, faster, and can go where humans can't. They're immune to fatigue, unaffected by G-forces, and don't come with the political baggage of sending soldiers into harm's way.
But all of that hinges on one simple truth - you need a rock-solid, always-on link between the platform and the operator. Lose that, and your cutting-edge drone is just a fancy brick falling out of the sky.
'As our technology proves how it enables mission success, it spreads," said Amitai.
'This battlefield-proof growth reflects the deep confidence partners place in Elsight's ability to deliver resilient, always-on connectivity for the most demanding unmanned applications in contested environments.'
Other ASX defence-related stocks
Code Name Last Month change Year change Market Cap
ELS Elsight Ltd 1.350 141% 193% $245,350,635
EOS Electro Optic Sys. 2.790 89% 111% $538,336,356
1CG One Click Group Ltd 0.009 50% -10% $10,600,919
DRO Droneshield Limited 1.810 47% 16% $1,582,915,326
HCL Highcom Ltd 0.240 30% 78% $24,643,841
ASB Austal Limited 6.240 28% 164% $2,628,163,475
3DA Amaero Ltd 0.340 26% -11% $234,735,550
OEC Orbital Corp Limited 0.110 18% 26% $18,125,769
CDA Codan Limited 19.700 16% 73% $3,576,945,587
BCT Bluechiip Limited 0.003 0% -25% $3,616,878
TTT Titomic Limited 0.290 -2% 258% $384,469,935
BIS Bisalloy Steel 3.260 -3% -17% $156,165,739
BRN Brainchip Ltd 0.205 -7% -5% $415,277,056
AL3 Aml3D 0.135 -10% 108% $72,594,980
AJX Alexium Int Group 0.007 -13% -30% $11,105,001
DroneShield (ASX:DRO) builds the tech that spots rogue drones and knocks them out of the sky. Used by militaries, airports, and critical infrastructure, it's a modern-day drone alarm system, supercharged with AI wizardry.
Electro Optic Systems (ASX:EOS) designs remote-controlled weapons and high-tech optical gear for defence and space. If you've seen those gun turrets that track targets automatically – yep, that's them.
Orbital Corporation (ASX:OEC) makes the engines that keep tactical drones in the air. Based in WA but supplying the US defence market, its job is to make sure these little aircraft fly further, longer, and without fail.