ASX-listed counter-drone company DroneShield on Wednesday announced two new contracts worth A$7.9 million with the US Department of Defense, pushing its global deployment past 4,000 systems.
The orders cover handheld drone-detection devices, including Australian-made RfPatrols, and add to a series of repeat purchases by the Pentagon. The company say the work highlights its growing foothold in the US defence market, where its equipment is already in operational use.
DroneShield chief executive Oleg Vornik said the Australian business is seeing “rapidly rising” demand as defence customers move beyond trial buys into larger programs to establish a counter-drone defence.
Droneshield said its A$7.9 million DoD deal adds to a string of repeat US orders that has seen more than 2,200 RfPatrols being manufactured locally, with about 85 per cent of components sourced from suppliers across New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia.
The RfPatrol has already featured in several high-profile contracts, including DroneShield’s record $61.6 million European deal earlier this year, a $5 million Australian Defence order under the Land 156 program, and a $10.4 million contract to Ukraine in 2023 as part of Canberra’s counter-drone aid package.
The company has been investing to ensure it can meet the surging demand, including a new$13 million facility in Alexandria in Sydney that will take over assembly and production functions from its current headquarters in Pyrmont from December. The Pyrmont site will then focus on R&D and systems engineering.
Once operational, the new facility is expected to lift production capacity to A$900 million annually by mid-2026, with combined Australian capacity forecast to hit A$2.4 billion by the end of that year.
Earlier this year, the company announced it would open its first overseas manufacturing facility in Europe, designed to meet EU local-content requirements under initiatives such as the ReArm Europe plan, while also serving as a regional sales hub.
European- and US-made versions of the RfPatrol are planned from 2026 to further support those markets.
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