Unmanned Aerial Vehicle The latest drone news
AIM Defence’s Fractl Tactical Directed Energy Laser has taken out first place at an
international Counter Drone Sandbox in Canada netting a $1 million dollar prize.
The win cements AIM’s position at the forefront of low cost and compact Tactical
Counter-Drone Systems and follows the Australian Government’s $5.4 million commitment to buy a Fractal counter drone system for internal test and evaluation.
The Sandbox, conducted as part of the Canadian Armed Forces’ Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security (IDEaS)’ programme, is designed to competitively evaluate state of the art counter drone technology across the globe.
AIM co-founder Ms Jessica Glenn said: “We’re extremely thankful to the Canadian Government for giving us this opportunity and to their red team who really put our system to the test with a range of drones that we’d never seen before from FPVs to fixed wings across a range of scenarios.
“It was a challenging event and we’re proud to have come out on top.”
The programme has run biannually for the last six years and is internationally regarded as an independent assessment of counter drone capabilities for both NATO
and Five Eyes allies.
Reflecting the proliferation and growing concern of weaponised drones the 2024 Sandbox focused on the effective detection and defeat of quadcopter, FPV and fixed wing targets.
AIM Defence was one of fifteen companies selected to show off their technology a t the event with other participants including industry giants from Canada, the USA and the UK.
The Fractal system uses in house developed artificial intelligence (AI) tracking and ultra compact laser technology to track and neutralise drones at up to 1.5 kilometres away, and successfully shot down over 30 targets during the exercise.
AIM co-founder Dr Jae Daniel said: “While we are immensely proud of our achievements to date, we’re just getting started.
“We’ve seen a significant uptick in demand for effective counter drone technologies and plan to reinvest the winnings back into AIM so we can continue to develop best in
class technology and protect our allies.”
The Canadian evaluation team judged that the AIM Fractal system best met sandbox prize criteria for demonstrated performance, continuous improvement.
Further reading:
AIM Defence’s anti drone laser demonstrated to Army
Picture: AIM Defence
