Ondas Holdings’ Airobotics Completes Acquisition of Iron Drone Assets and Launches New Counter-Drone System

Ondas Holdings, a leading provider of private industrial wireless networks and commercial drone and automated data solutions, announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary Airobotics, Ltd. (“Airobotics”) completed the acquisition of the assets of Iron Drone Ltd., an Israeli-based company specializing in the development of autonomous counter-drone systems, effective March 6, 2023. Iron Drone’s new system will be presented March 7 – 9 at the World Police Summit in Dubai. Ondas will integrate Iron Drone’s counter-drone technology within its business unit, Ondas Autonomous Systems. Together with the Optimus System™, Ondas is offering a government-grade drone solution for security and critical infrastructure protection and monitoring, specifically when deployed for homeland security applications for protection of critical assets in complex commercial environments.

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“Iron Drone’s counter-drone technology is a perfect fit for Ondas’ portfolio as it is a mission-critical system that can be installed to protect sensitive assets”

The completed transaction represents a new revenue opportunity for Ondas as it signifies the Company’s entrance into the promising and rapidly growing public safety, homeland security, and defense markets. Combined, the companies will provide customers in smart city, defense, and industrial markets with an advanced and unique integrated security platform capable of intercepting hostile drones in various theaters such as airports, populated areas, critical infrastructure, and more. The Iron Drone technology will be available to customers as a standalone technology offering and as an addition to the Optimus System™ Urban Drone Infrastructure.

“Iron Drone’s counter-drone technology is a perfect fit for Ondas’ portfolio as it is a mission-critical system that can be installed to protect sensitive assets,” said Eric Brock, Chairman and CEO of Ondas. “The combination of Airobotics with Iron Drone represents a new revenue opportunity for Ondas in a market that is seeing a lot of growth. Iron Drone’s expertise and technology will be complementary to the Optimus System drone, providing our growing list of customers in the public safety and industrial sectors with the solution they are looking for.”

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“We’re moving fast to bring the Iron Drone solution to the homeland security worldwide market,” said Meir Kliner, Ondas Autonomous Systems President. “We have already been approached by various potential customers who are looking for a reliable, non-weaponized counter-drone solution. The unique integrated AI-based Iron Drone solution relies on physical elimination of the target drone. This makes it effective against pre-programmed hostile drones and UAVs which do not rely on operators radio-link. Moreover, due to its low collateral signature, it can be operated in areas where the use of jamming is prohibited, such as airports, populated areas, and critical infrastructures. With Iron Drone, our customers will be able to neutralize threats while utilizing Optimus drones for monitoring, observation, and video surveillance.”

In recent years, there has been a noticeable increase in the use of drones and other small, unmanned vehicles by terrorist and criminal elements for the purpose of attacking and disrupting the functioning of strategic facilities, such as airports and oil and gas facilities, as well as mass events and city centers. The availability and ease of operations of these aircraft make them attractive to malicious actors. These aircraft may also be used for intelligence gathering, smuggling, or even become weaponized. The system is designed to defend assets against hostile drones and UAVs, collateral damage. The Iron Drone system is a fully-automated intercepting system that can eliminate small drones without using GPS or RF jamming. Launched from a designated pod, the interceptor flies autonomously towards the targets based on initial radar guidance, then “locks on” to the target using advanced AI vision. The intercepting drone follows the target, then incapacitates and captures it, using a net and a parachute to safely lower it to the ground. The whole process is fully-automated without the need for a human pilot.

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