Swoop Aero partners with Iridium to propel impact-focused operations worldwide

Melbourne AUSTRALIA: Swoop Aero has entered into a strategic partnership with the
leading organisation for global satellite communications, Iridium. The partnership establishes Swoop Aero as a value-added manufacturer and will spur the exponential scaling up of Swoop Aero’s technology, impact, and reach.

The partnership enables a closer collaboration between the two organisations. The integration of Iridium Certus® 100 technology will support Swoop Aero’s mission to provide the world’s leading technology platform for sustainable and scalable drone logistics.
Swoop Aero CEO, Eric Peck highlights “The partnership will contribute to driving the next shift in integrated logistics and help respond to the increased demand for quality, fast, and accessible essential supplies globally. The vetting of Swoop Aero as a value-added partner by Iridium underlines the maturity of our technology, and our established aerospace quality standards trusted by regulators around the globe”.

The Swoop Aero platform is an integrated suite of hardware and software built from day one to safely enable drone fleet operations at significant scale. In addition to the physical hardware and software integration, the cloud platform maintains a digital twin of the aircraft fleet alongside fleet administration tools and safety systems. Iridium Certus technology supports Swoop Aero’s advanced communication system allowing us to
provide a holistic logistics platform underpinned by the digital twin that seamlessly integrates into all components of the value chain, including the skies above.

In 2021, Swoop Aero introduced its most advanced aircraft to date, KiteTM which unlocks new opportunities for Swoop Aero to scale its purpose-driven operations across the world to support a range of activities, including emergency disaster management, medical logistics, and search and rescue operations.

Swoop Aero will leverage the Iridium® constellation’s architecture to leapfrog communications and connectivity shortcomings in remote areas across the world, bridging the gap in access to essential healthcare and opening new areas of impact through real-time screening capabilities.

The satellites of the Iridium network cover the entire earth with weather-resilient connectivity. The integration of the Iridium Connected® antennas into the physical Swoop Aero infrastructure enables the service to operate safely in the most austere geographical contexts, from remote locations in regional Australia to the Democratic Republic of Congo. It also allows the Lookout System to stream back, in real-time, video displays from anywhere in the world through the provision of a continuous broadband link.

In cases of search and rescue operations, Swoop Aero leverages computer vision to analyze live footage, for example, to identify a distressed swimmer, surfer or boat out at sea.

“The integration of the Iridium Certus link will guarantee the flight safety record of Swoop Aero’s KiteTM by facilitating continuous communications everywhere between many aircraft and a single operator as we expand from 10:1 to 30:1 operations.” adds Chief Architect Andrew Thomas. “The Iridium Certus link facilitates real-time connectivity with low latency due to the geographical proximity of Low Earth Orbit Connection. This means the Swoop Aero team is able to know where the aircraft is in real-time, anywhere in the world, via a centralised proprietary communications portal.

Iridium Executive Vice President, Bryan Hartin noted, “Iridium has long been impressed by Swoop Aero’s innovative approach and highly values their dedication to leveraging the very best technology on the market, including Iridium Global Line of SightTM (GLOS), to create real impact and scale around the world.”

Hartin continued, “Improving the health outcomes and conditions of remote communities as well as a goal to transform the transportation and logistics industries to deliver supplies in innovative ways, makes Swoop Aero an ideal partner for Iridium. Swoop Aero’s experience as an impact-driven organisation has driven development of communications-based technologies that facilitate reliable and stable connections with the most remote communities globally.”

About Swoop Aero

Swoop Aero is an Australian drone-powered logistics company founded in 2017 to transform how the world
moves by making access to the skies seamless. We integrate drone logistics into the first and last mile of the
supply chain to transform its strength and agility. Where we don’t deliver that service ourselves, we provide our technology platform selectively to organisations across the globe to further the reach of our impact. Our goal is to provide a service accessible by 1 billion people in 2030, delivering impact across industries including health, transport, disaster management, and Search and Rescue. Since its founding in 2017, Swoop Aero has worked with some of the largest organisations in global health across three continents, including UNICEF, the Gates Foundation, UK Aid, USAID, and Gavi the Vaccine Alliance.

To learn more about Swoop Aero: https://swoop.aero/
To learn more about Iridium: https://www.iridium.com/