DroneShield announces Asian Security Integrator Order.
DroneShield Ltd (ASX:DRO) (“DroneShield” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce a sale of its FarAlert andWideAlert acoustic drone detection system to the security integrator Pemira Technology & Solutions Pte Limited (“Pemira”), which focuses on customers throughout Asia. The sale follows the Company’s first sale of the product for use by a European security integrator announced to the market on 23 March 2017. The Company understands that the customer expects to use the system for testing and demonstrations to its customers throughout Asia, and that to the extent that Pemira’s customers place orders for the system, these orders will be placed with Pemira who will in turn place them with the Company.
While the revenue from the sale is not material on its own, the sale illustrates the increased need for drone security systems globally and the increased acceptance of DroneShield as a leader in the industry, capable of delivering a working and cost-effective solution to its end users, without the need for further development.
The sale comes against the backdrop of increased governmental concern about drone terrorism. While the use of drones as flying bombs by ISIS against the coalition forces has been well-documented over the recent weeks, last week the press reported the first known use of drones by non-state actors against the Patriot missile defence systems. The Conflict Armament Research organisation was reported to have documented that the Iranian-affiliated Houthi militia in Yemen had rammed several drones into the radars of the U.S.-made anti-missile Patriot defence systems in the region, effectively rendering them inoperable against ballistic missiles.
These are the same systems as those deployed in East Asia, defensively in relation to the North Korean threat, and the use of cheap drones to blind multi-million dollar anti-ballistic missile systems illustrates the unaddressed need for drone detection and mitigation, globally and in Asia in particular. The U.S. Department of Defense spokesman Christopher Sherwood was reported last week as stating that the U.S. Department of Defense is “aggressively pursuing” counter drone technologies.
