Counter-UAS technology company Department 13 (D13) has entered into a teaming agreement with Raytheon to market and support existing counter-UAS technologies and co-develop new capabilities.
D13, which has an office in Perth and is listed on the ASX, will initially seek opportunities with Raytheon for Mesmer D-13’s patented, low-power, non-jamming, non-line-of-sight, non-kinetic, counter-UAS solution.
The system provides a safe and effective method of protecting personnel and infrastructure from dangerous drones by automatically detecting and then stopping, redirecting or taking control of them.
ADM first witnessed a demonstration of the technology in Sydney in November 2016 when the system consisted of a 41 kilogram stand-alone, rack mountable unit – essentially a server with an RF front end to control the gain and transmission of the RF signals.
D13 listed on the ASX in January 2017 and Mesmer Version 1.0 was approved for Australian import in February. The first sale in Australia was achieved via Australian distributor or ‘channel partner’ EPE in April.
D13 CEO Jonathan Hunter told ADM the latest version 1.5 is considerably smaller, weighing in at just under 30 kilograms outside of the box. It covers four frequency bands (up from the previous two) and has an extended range out to around five kilometres, representing an improvement of up to four kilometres. It also has an expanded inventory of UAS protocols.
“This was in response to a US customer’s requirement. We've sold nine Mesmers to date, eight of which are Version 1.5, to three different clients on three different continents and for three different use cases.”
Hunter explained the customers represented military, correctional services and critical infrastructure protection interests.
“We've had positive protections and mitigations and all three clients have been very pleased with the system. We're providing them with new protocol updates every quarter to counter new threats but also providing new effciencies, much like mobile phone updates.”
Hunter said the agreement with Raytheon, represents an investment by the prime in not just the product but also the team, the company, the vision, and the IP.
“Their focus will be on trying to sell Version 1.5 to their key market set – obviously from our perspective they have an international presence that allows us to access significant opportunities in terms of size and scale. They can integrate Mesmer on a much greater scale than we could ever have done.”
Raytheon clearly has pedigree in the threat interdiction space with the likes of Iron Dome and Patriot. Hunter explained their current counter-UAS offering was kinetic and the interest in a non-kinetic system like Mesmer allows them to ‘round out’ their counter UAS offering.
“We’re the only ones using protocol manipulation that is non-jamming and non-kinetic and allows control of the airspace.”
Hunter said D13 would be able to leverage off Raytheon’s significant R&D capabilities to further improve Mesmer.
“There are a lot of discussions proceeding along those lines – they have unique capabilities beyond their manufacturing, integration and servicing aspects that can help augment or be very synergistic with the Mesmer offering, particularly with regard to government solutions.”
“Raytheon’s strong ties to key customers globally, combined with its quality controls and assurance, will add a great amount of depth and breadth to our development efforts.”
Program director for unmanned vehicle control systems at Raytheon Intelligence, Information and Services Bob Busey said commercial drones continue to be affordable, yet effective tools for our adversaries to target US and allied forces. “We will work with D13 to bring unique counter-drone technologies to defend against these growing threats.”
Hunter said D13’s successful partnership with EPE would continue in Australia and indeed discussion was taking place on how the relationship could be further extended. “We don't envisage any involvement by Raytheon Australia unless EPE requires additional capabilities that are unavailable to them – so they might augment them but EPE is definitely leading the way for us in Australia, New Zealand and potentially other countries as well.”
EPE has conducted further demonstrations of Mesmer during December and Hunter said he was looking forward to further sales in the forseeable future.