Booz Allen Hamilton [BAH] on Tuesday said its venture capital arm has made a strategic investment in Hidden Level, Inc.
, a developer of passive radio frequency (RF) sensing technology to monitor airspace in support of counter-drone missions.
The value of the investment wasn’t disclosed.
Hidden Level, which is based in Syracuse, N.Y., said the investment will help accelerate its work in airspace monitoring for the Department of Defense’s counter-unmanned aircraft system (UAS) missions.
“The investment from Booz Allen Ventures is a natural extension of our deep technology work paired with Booz Allen’s mission expertise,” Jeff Cole, CEO and co-founder of Hidden Level, said in a statement. “Booz Allen understands the technology needed to support warfighters, and Hidden Level will play an important role in both tactically and strategically supporting DoD through dual-used technology to achieve decision superiority.”
Booz Allen said the investment builds on lessons being learned from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, where small UAS operating at low altitudes are proving their worth in delivering situational awareness to Ukrainian and Russian forces during the war.
“The ongoing conflict in Ukraine empirically demonstrates the value of UAS technologies and disproportionate intelligence in modern warfare,” Steve Escaravage, executive vice president of Booz Allen and leader of the company’s Digital Battlespace Platform, said in a statement. “Investments in companies like Hidden Level accelerate our ability to bring novel insights to the counter-UAS mission, expanding the potential for decision advantage by our nation’s warfighters.”
Hidden Level’s technology can detect and track drones operating in monitored airspace. The company is positioning itself to help potential airspace monitoring operators be ready for the Federal Aviation Administration’s final rule requiring drone operators to have a remote identification transponder on their aircraft, enabling monitoring technology to track a drone and pinpoint the location of the control station. The Remote ID rule goes into effect on Sept. 16.
Hidden Level’s solution receives and verifies the Remote ID signals. It can also detect and track UAS that are not emitting a Remote ID signal. The cloud-based solution is scalable and relies on a local network of passive RF drone detection sensors that can be installed on buildings, rooftops and cell towers for real-tome location data of UAS. The data can be viewed through various existing security platforms.
The investment in Hidden Level is the first by Booz Allen Ventures in 2023.
Other investors in Hidden Level include Lockheed Martin [LMT] and a number of venture capital and private equity firms.