This spring, a counter-drone solution that was integrated by Science Applications International Corp. [SAIC] through its internally-developed command and control platform “performed extremely well” in testing the Defense Department, leading to recent sales, Nazzic Keene, the company’s CEO, said on Thursday.
SAIC’s counter-unmanned aircraft solution (C-UAS) is completely agnostic, bringing together “best available technologies in the areas of directed energy, radar, optics and power management” through the company’s “single pane of glass” Valkyrie operator platform, Keene said during the company’s second quarter earnings call.
In addition to being technology agnostic, the open architecture C-UAS solution is modular and scalable and can detect, track, identify and defeat drones, Keene said. SAIC can integrate kinetic and non-kinetic defeat mechanisms with Valkyrie, the company says on its website.
The C-UAS solution was tested by the Army’s Joint Counter-small UAS Office (JCO) in April, Keene said.
An overview of the company’s C-UAS system says that during the JCO tests it had a total mission effectiveness rate above 92 percent, noting that the reconfigurable solution integrated more than 25 sensors and effectors supplied by 10 hardware providers and was operated by one person using the Valkyrie platform against fixed and rotary-wing UAS ranging from Group 1 to Group 3. Group 1 drones have a maximum gross take-off weight less than 21 pounds. Group 2 UAS can weigh up to 55-pounds and Group 3 less than 1,320.
“Our success at this event served as a catalyst for an encouraging rate of adoption in recent months with greater potential upside going forward,” Keene said on the call. There have been “modest increases to funding” from customers that led to revenue in the second quarter with expectations of more to come in the second half of the fiscal year, Prabu Natarajan, SAIC’s chief financial officer, said during the call.
SAIC is currently contracted with the Army for its C-UAS solution, a company spokeswoman told Defense Daily.
“We’ve gotten very good reviews from our customers,” Keene said.
The Valkyrie platform combined with SAIC’s ability to integrate an array of sensors and other capabilities for the comprehensive C-UAS solution is an example of the company’s “leadership position as a technology integrator,” Keene said. Later in the call, she highlighted SAIC’s technology agnostic approach that can integrate the best commercial and government sensors and systems, as a differentiator from other companies that bring their own in-house solution.
In addition to the defense market, SAIC also has opportunities to provide its counter-drone solutions to federal civilian agencies, Keene said.
SAIC’s earnings’ presentation included a slide showing that the company has a legacy in the C-UAS space dating back to 2012 and has involved military and public safety applications in the U.S. and internationally. SAIC also previously developed the Multi-Environmental Domain Unmanned System Application Command and Control, known as MEDUSA C2, for C-UAS operations.