Australian counter-drone device-maker DroneShield will invest at least $13 million in a new Sydney-based manufacturing and in-house assembly facility to meet surging demand for its sovereign defence technologies.
The new facility, to be located in Sydney’s inner-city suburb Alexandria, will enable the company to separate its production activities from its Pyrmont headquarters from December and repurpose the space for research and development activities.
It comes just weeks after DroneShield revealed plans to open a similar facility in Europe, ensuring more of its European orders can be fulfilled from the continent in line with the ReArm Europe plan.
At 3,000 square metres, the new R&D and manufacturing facility is triple the size of DroneShield’s existing production floor in Pyrmont, a facility that was still being fitted out in January.
The Pyrmont office will now focus solely on research and development, systems engineering and operations. The 2,500 square metres previously used for production will be converted into engineering and lab space.
In an ASX announcement on Monday, DroneShield said the expansion reflects the company’s rapid scale-up of operations as it moves to deliver on major customer orders, including recent contracts with the US Department of Defense and Five Eyes allies.
The company said the new site will expand its annual production capacity to $900 million by mid-2026 and a combined total annual manufacturing capacity to $2.4 billion by the end of 2026.
“In response to rising threats and multiple wars taking place across the globe, Australia’s allies are increasing investment in modern defence capabilities,” DroneShield’s chief executive Oleg Vornik said.
Mr Vornik added that DroneShield’s investment will meet “sovereign Australian skills development… [and] epitomise the value Australian engineering can bring to a changing geopolitical landscape.”
The move also follows the company’s announcement to open its first overseas manufacturing site in the US earlier this year to support contracts with the Department of Defense and expand its North American footprint.
With Justin Hendry
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