The firm, a defense technology company that makes loitering munitions, drones and counter-drone technology, will collaborate with commercial unmanned aerial system, or UAS, business and aviation park Grand Sky on the project.
AeroVironment said it will deploy its inner layer distributed counter-UAS capabilities at the Grand Forks base, working alongside Grand Sky. Those capabilities will include AeroVironment’s Titan and Titan-SV systems — long range anti-drone detection and identification systems — using its AV Halo Command software platform to fuse sensor and surveillance data, AeroVironment said.
The systems together will provide a single operating picture of the airspace around the Grand Forks base, even beyond visual line of site, for counter-drone efforts.
AeroVironment said this Grand Forks effort will “establish the foundation” of its potential contribution to the administration’s Golden Dome for America project, which seeks to set up a national missile defense system.
“We’re deploying technologies that deliver unmatched situational awareness to Grand Forks AFB, while providing a road map to expand these limited area defense capabilities at critical sites throughout the nation in support of Golden Dome for America,” AeroVironment president and chief executive Wahid Nawabi said in the announcement.
“By combining our surveillance and edge-intelligence technologies with the vision of Grand Sky and the support of leaders like [North Dakota] Sen. [John] Hoeven, we are accelerating solutions that will protect critical U.S. military installations and the service members who operate within them,” he added.
Hoeven said in the announcement that recent attacks on Israel and Ukraine have showed the “new and dangerous ways” drones are being used to wage war.
“The capabilities and partnerships we’ve built in the Grand Forks region will enable our nation to tackle this emerging threat,” Hoeven said.
AeroVironment and Grand Sky laid the groundwork for this collaboration in March, when they signed a memorandum of understanding supporting Project Ultra, Hoeven’s $110 million drone and counter-drone initiative.
In August, AeroVironment announced a strategic partnership with aerospace and national security firm SNC to create an integrated, open architecture air and missile defense system that could support Golden Dome.
At the time, Nawabi said the two companies could produce “novel and affordable” defensive systems to protect military bases, ships, airfields, or critical U.S. infrastructure.
These Golden Dome solutions could include passive and active sensors, radio frequency technology, directed energy, kinetic energy, electronic warfare and cyber solutions, AeroVironment said, and could target everything from small drones to advanced cruise missiles or other next-generation aerial threats.
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.
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