Latest news with #counterUAS
Associated Press
27-05-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
QINETIQ US WINS $41 MILLION TASK ORDER TO SUPPORT ARMY COUNTER UAS
Advanced sensor integration and detection technologies to strengthen U.S. Army counter-UAS capabilities MCLEAN, Va., May 27, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- QinetiQ US wins a $41 million, three-year task order to provide software and technology integration support for a counter-UAS project under the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) C5ISR Center. The company will deliver technical and software engineering expertise to advance counter-UAS capabilities across fixed installations, vehicles, and mobile deployment systems. As systems integration experts, QinetiQ US will support key aspects of the program including development, testing, deployment and training, providing warfighters with critical sensor technologies needed to detect and track increasingly sophisticated drone threats. 'This task order reinforces QinetiQ US' role as a trusted technology partner in countering the rapidly evolving UAS threat landscape that challenges our warfighters,' said Jonathan Riksen, executive vice president and general manager of QinetiQ US' National & Global Security Solutions. 'By developing advanced sensor technologies and data fusion capabilities for counter-UAS programs, we're providing essential detection and tracking systems that form critical links in the counter-UAS kill chain.' QinetiQ US' advanced sensor and data fusion solutions provide the critical detection and tracking capabilities essential to layered counter-drone defense systems. By enabling precise threat identification, these solutions deliver the intelligence foundation necessary for effective counter-UAS neutralization decisions. About QinetiQ US QinetiQ US is a leading defense and national security company providing mission-led, customer-focused engineering and innovative solutions for next-generation ISR, advanced cyber technology, mission operations and multi-domain autonomous systems to deliver a decisive and actionable information advantage. As a provider of secure, technologically advanced services and products to the U.S. Department of Defense, Homeland Security, Intelligence Community and other national security agencies, QinetiQ US partners closely with customers to deploy new capabilities protecting lives and the nation's vital interests. QinetiQ US operates under a Special Security Agreement (SSA) with the U.S. Government. As the U.S. subsidiary of QinetiQ Group plc, we maintain independent governance and oversight to protect classified information and ensure full compliance with U.S. national security requirements. For more information, visit View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE QinetiQ US
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
US company Aimlock has been all about deadly accurate fire. Now it's also making last-resort weapons for the counter-drone fight.
AimLock is an aided target recognition technology company founded in 2013. Its targeting systems have been applied to everything from rifles to rockets and various drones. CEO Bryan Bockman told BI about AimLock's work in the counter-UAS space at SOF Week 2025. Helping troops armed with rifles, drones, mounted machine guns, and even grenade and rocket launchers identify and lock onto targets more easily — that's the basic mission of US company AimLock, which has been developing automated targeting products for over a decade. At SOF Week 2025, the company's CEO, Bryan Bockmon, told Business Insider about how the company is now focusing on autonomous weapons systems that may be crucial for future warfare, systems made for defeating drones. Countering drones is an expanding area of research and development, with a lot of work being done in Ukraine, though that isn't the only country where this technology is being developed. The Ukraine war has shown that electronic warfare like signal jamming and GPS spoofing can be effective when it comes to defeating enemy drones, but having a kinetic option, the ability to shoot it, as a last resort for destroying those systems is essential should other options fail. And they may fail because some drones, like the fiber-optic drones becoming more common in Ukraine or AI-enabled systems, for instance, are resistant to electronic warfare. "If that doesn't work," Bockmon said of electronic warfare, then "this is the last line of defense." AimLock's autonomous counter-drone systems are made to detect classify, and track uncrewed aerial systems and then decide on the best firing solution for taking them out. One of the AimLock counter-UAS systems was on display at SOF Week in Tampa, Florida. Bockmon said that the system was invulnerable to signal jamming and other elements of electronic warfare because it relies on visual navigation and autonomous terminal guidance. "We develop autonomy that's specialized for weapons integration," the CEO said, explaining that the autonomy is in finding targets, aiming, tracking, and engagement, or actually firing the weapon at the target. What makes AimLock's development approach interesting is that "instead of making specialized systems that then have to be reinvented 10 times over to cover the entire mission need," Bockmon said, it makes "generalized modules that can be adapted across 10 different missions." So if the warfighter needs a different sensor or weapon system, it can find an AimLock product to match. It reduces the development cycle, the CEO said, lowering costs and simplifying the process. The company's Core Targeting Module, or CTM, as it's called, is at the heart of AimLock's systems. It combines autonomy and firing and targeting components to improve the speed and precision of weapons from guns to uncrewed systems. The CTM hardware is, in some cases, just a small black box with a few plug-in outlets on top. Bockmon said the modularity of it and other weapons systems AimLock makes allows it "to offer new solutions that can adapt at the pace of combat," whether that is a low-intensity fight or a high-intensity great power conflict in remote or contested environments with limited communications. While the company has been working to refine all of this for years, its current focus is its counter-drone systems. Counter-drone technology has been growing in importance for years now with electronic warfare, directed energy (lasers), and other developments all aimed at defeating uncrewed systems, but the technology is becoming critical as drones, especially small, inexpensive drones, become more prolific. The Pentagon unveiled its new counter-UAS strategy to address these issues last year, but there's a lot of work to be done to meet the threat. "We finished our first counter-UAS systems back in 2018," Bockmon explained to BI, "and they had to sit on the shelves for a long time because it was really about how effective will electronic warfare be in the future, and then how quickly will it be defeated." It wasn't clear initially how effective electronic warfare would be, but it's clear now that it's not infallible. The counter-drone mission was a big topic at SOF Week 2025. Multiple defense industry exhibitors and special operations officials spoke to the growing need for a variety of solutions to defeat hostile drones. The Defense Department has made developing a military-wide strategy for countering drones a top priority. Read the original article on Business Insider
