Citadel Defense Expands Counter Drone Production Capacity
Citadel Defense says that it has expanded its San Diego manufacturing capabilities to support production of up to 50 counter unmanned aircraft systems (C-UAS) solutions per month as demand for the company’s products continues to increase. “Designing agility into our product development process from the beginning has allowed us to iterate in real-time alongside our customers and rapidly deploy new capabilities to improve mission outcomes,” says Christopher Williams, Citadel’s CEO. Demand for the company’s Titan C-UAS systems is being driven by military, government and international customers. Citadel has received more than $17.5 million in orders the past 18 months for products and services to support C-UAS efforts globally. Citadel says it uses U.S. suppliers for Titan and that more than 70 percent of components are sourced in Southern California to improve responsiveness to customer requests.
Sandia Begins Initiative to Protect Electric Grid
Sandia National Laboratory has begun an initiative aimed at defending large U.S. electrical utility systems from potential attacks by hostile nations and by damage inflicted by natural disasters and solar flares. The Resilient Energy Systems effort, which is budgeted for $40 million over multiple years, is supported by the lab’s directed research and development program that funds exploratory work in science and technology. “The original electric grid was not designed with security in mind against cyber hacks, or protection from electromagnetic disturbances, or natural disasters such as hurricanes or geomagnetic solar storms,” says portfolio manager Craig Lawton. “The primary objective of our mission portfolio is to mitigate vulnerabilities caused by antiquated technology in transformers and other components. Solutions require research, and we’re looking for collective inputs of ideas from researchers in industry, utility companies, universities, other labs and of course Sandia.”
FLIR Launches Mid-Range Surveillance System
FLIR Systems [FLIR] in March introduced FLIR Ranger HDC MR, a new high-definition mid-range surveillance system for detecting illegal activities, including in degraded weather conditions, and can accommodate artificial intelligence image processing for faster decision-making. FLIR says the thermal imaging system reduces costs and logistics, increases capability for border and infrastructure security, force protection, and can be used in counter-drone applications. “This new system can eliminate days of inefficient surveillance by using on-the-edge technology to see through poor weather conditions, increasing up-time,” says David Ray, president of FLIR’s Government & Defense Technologies business. The FLIR Ranger HDC MR will begin shipping in the third quarter.