Dedrone, a San Francisco company that specializes in counter-small unmanned aircraft systems technology, has purchased all assets and intellectual property associated with DroneDefender from Battelle. Dedrone plans to launch a new consultancy, Dedrone Defense, for U.S. federal agencies, including the Department of Defense, providing a solution that detects and classifies airspace activity, protects assets from drone threats and defeats adversary drones.
DroneDefender and all operations associated with the technology will be led from the company’s Washington, D.C.-area office, under the new entity, Dedrone Defense.
“Today’s announcement of this sale is a success story for both Battelle and Dedrone,” Battelle President and CEO Lou Von Thaer said, in a statement. “The DroneDefender was an innovation developed by our researchers to meet an urgent need. We developed it and delivered it to our customers rapidly, where it was deployed in the field proving very effective in countering nefarious drone activity. We are proud to see it being integrated into Dedrone’s systems.”
Part of Battelle’s mission is to develop technology and to ensure that it is commercialized and deployed as quickly as possible to help society.
Battelle and Dedrone began working together in August 2017 to develop a collaborative solution to provide airspace security for militaries and critical infrastructure. In June 2018, Dedrone successfully demonstrated the capabilities of DroneTracker and DroneDefender at ThunderDrone, a U.S. Special Operations Command and SOFWERX rapid prototyping event, ranking first place out of 45 other counter-sUAS companies.
DroneDefender units are currently in use by the U.S. Departments of Defense and Department of Homeland Security and other federal entities and will continue to be manufactured in the United States by Dedrone.
