Fortem Technologies sells to Pentagon autonomous advancement for SkyDome C-UAS

Fortem Technologies' DroneHunter C-UAS system captures a fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle in an undated photo. The company has sold an advancement to its SkyDome that allows the DroneHunter to autonomously select one of three available engagement modes to defeat a UAS threat. (Fortem Technologies)

Fortem Technologies has sold to a Pentagon customer an advancement for its SkyDome airspace intrusion detection suite that enables the company's DroneHunter unmanned aircraft system (UAS) interceptor to autonomously select one of three available engagement modes to defeat a UAS threat.

Adam Robertson, CTO and co-founder of Fortem Technologies, told Janes on 13 August that this was a multimillion-dollar award. Although he did not provide further details, Robertson said the company has completed all the important metrics as part of this award and is now performing follow-on work for the US Department of Defense.

The DroneHunter is an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven interceptor that can chase, attack, or defend against an intruding UAS, depending on the threat's size, speed, and trajectory. The DroneHunter carries a NetGun, which is designed to deploy one of two types of nets depending on the mode of capture.

The net has a tether that remains connected to the interceptor to transport a captured UAS to a designated drop zone. Robertson said the DroneHunter has a default setting of two NetGuns to take down two threats captured independently on the same flight.

Over the last year, Fortem Technologies has been working to improve the AI in the DroneHunter to make the system more effective. Robertson said the DroneHunter uses AI to detect that the adversary aircraft is indeed a UAS and not a bird, and assigns a probability number to the aircraft.