Zenith AeroTech, a developer of heavy-lift tethered aerial vehicles (TAVs), is partnering with Sydney-based DroneShield to provide enhanced drone detection capabilities, along with a range of countermeasures.
As part of the distribution agreement with DroneShield, Zenith AeroTech will incorporate DroneShield’s DroneSentry-C2TM command-and-control ecosystem into its own family of TAVs, along with an Echodyne EchoFlight radar, to counter drone or drone swarm attacks.
“By putting a detection capability on a TAV, which typically flies at 400 feet, you get better range than if you were to have these systems on a pole or ground vehicle,” Kutlay Kaya, CEO of Zenith Aerotech, said. “Also, your alerts will be more accurate because, at elevation, you’ve eliminated clutter.”
Zenith AeroTech offers three different TAV platforms - Hexa, Quad 8, and Quadro – which can stay aloft for days using the company's Ground Power-Tether Management System, which converts 120 or 240-volt AC power from a generator (or another source) into high-voltage DC.
The platforms themselves can carry 10-30 pounds (4.5-13.5 kg) of payload.
In addition to a capable drone-detection solution, the company will also be offering DroneShield’s soft kill measures for personnel on the ground.
“Because we detect inbound drones from further away, we give personnel on the ground more time to jam them,” Kaya said. “We are already working with a couple of federal agencies, and we anticipate broader adoption of this solution."
“DroneShield’s deployment with Zenith takes our cutting edge command-and-control ecosystem capabilities into the tethered drone domain, opening a new range of applications for our government end-users," DroneShield’s CEO Oleg Vornik said.