Drone / UAS

The screen that governs the whole procurement happens before performance is even weighed: each candidate airframe is checked against the current DoD Blue UAS list and the manufacturer against the NDAA §889 covered-equipment restrictions, because a covered platform is ineligible no matter how well it flies. Mission fit is scoped in parallel — endurance, payload weight, launch-and-recovery method and transport footprint — so the airframes that reach a quote are the ones that both clear the compliance gate and match the mission.

Where a preferred airframe can't clear those gates, we flag it during scoping and put compliant alternatives on the table, so the eligibility problem surfaces on paper rather than at delivery. TAA country-of-origin is documented per lot on all non-restricted components.

Sensor and payload integration is where a spec sheet meets physics. EO/IR gimbals, SIGINT payloads and communications relays are bench-tested for power budget, data-link bandwidth and physical mounting before they are paired with an airframe, so the integrated system performs as designed on the first mission rather than the third attempt.

For ISR work, payload selection is driven by the mission's data products, not the sensor's headline resolution: frame rate and resolution matter less than whether the data link can move that payload's output to the ground station in the time the mission allows. We size the link budget and the payload together.

Counter-UAS is a detect-track-defeat problem, not a single product purchase. RF detection, radar and EO/IR tracking each carry coverage and false-alarm tradeoffs that depend on your site's RF environment and airspace class, so we scope the detection layer against an actual site survey before recommending a defeat method.

The result is a system sized to the threat you are likely to see, not a vendor's default configuration — and one whose sensors, effectors and command console are integrated and tested together rather than bought as disconnected boxes.

A fielded system is only as ready as the kit around it. We integrate ground-control stations with the platform and payload, provision spares and consumables, and build transit-ready operator kits so a crew can launch on arrival rather than assemble on site.

Cases, antennas, batteries and field-power are specified for the environment the crew actually works in — dust, moisture, drop risk and long days off-grid — and standardized across kits so multiple teams field the same configuration.