Skygaard trial targets drone risks around Swedish water infrastructure

Skygaard Defense Solutions has secured a contract with a non-European industrial group to conduct a trial deployment focused on protecting critical water infrastructure in Sweden.

The Stockholm-based company will deploy its technology at several sites and analyse low-altitude airspace around operations that supply drinking water to nearly one million people.

- Our focus is to install systems at several locations to detect activity in the surrounding airspace. The aim is to assess what the technology can deliver in terms of security and protection, says Hans Werner, CEO and founder.

The project will focus on mapping drone-related risks and monitoring airspace activity around critical infrastructure. In addition, Skygaard will conduct a detailed analysis of the data collected during the trial.

According to the company, the objective is to establish a clearer picture of potential drone threats and other low-altitude air movements in the area. 

The resulting data is intended to provide operators of critical facilities with an evidence-based foundation for risk assessments, security planning and preparedness measures.

- Depending on the results, the customer will decide whether to make further investments in Sweden and internationally, Werner says.

Werner declined to identify the customer, other than describing it as a non-European organisation with operations in more than 100 countries. He also declined to disclose the value of the contract.

- This is a first step. You could describe it as a test for what may become a larger contract, notes Werner

Skygaard Defence Solutions specialises in counter-UAS technologies designed to detect, monitor and respond to unauthorised drone activity. 

The company works with critical infrastructure operators, public-sector organisations and defence-related customers and operates a test centre at Norrköping Airport.

In January, Skygaard was responsible for protecting low-altitude airspace during the World Economic Forum in Davos, providing an important operational validation of its technology.

In October, it entered into a partnership with KTH Royal Institute of Technology to develop drone swarm technologies.

Skygaard has also announced the formation of a Swedish joint venture with Front Ventures AB and Hede Capital AB to manufacture drones in Sweden using Ukrainian technology from drone producer Vluchnyk.

According to Werner, that initiative continues to progress, although implementation has taken longer than initially anticipated.