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Two Companies Team Up To Deliver Airborne Counter-Drone System

Honeywell Aerospace and Odys Aviation combine their capabilities.

Honeywell Aerospace and Odys Aviation are combining capabilities to deliver an airborne counter-UAS defense system. Credit: Honeywell Aerospace Technologies

Honeywell Aerospace and Odys Aviation are combining capabilities to deliver an airborne counter-UAS. Credit: Honeywell Aerospace Technologies

Honeywell Aerospace announced Tuesday a collaboration with dual-use aerospace company Odys Aviation, which is building hybrid-electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft. Together, the companies plan to develop a counter-unmanned aerial system (C-UAS) that will protect critical infrastructure from drone threats.

According to a Honeywell press release, the companies have been working for one year to adapt Honeywell Aerospace’s Stationary and Mobile UAS Reveal and Intercept (SAMURAI) autonomous airborne platform for deployment on Odys’ long-range Laila unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).

Honeywell’s SAMURAI is a modular, artificial intelligence-enabled counter-drone system that can detect, track and defeat drone swarms, and the deployment on Laila will be the system's first airborne application.

Odys’ Laila UAV is a dual-use cargo drone that can conduct high-definition mapping and terrain analysis. According to the release, Laila can fly up to 8 hours across a 450-mile range and does not require a dedicated charging infrastructure.

“SAMURAI delivers critical counter-UAS capabilities with proven reliability, scalability and seamless integration into existing defense architectures,” said Matt Milas, president, Defense and Space, Honeywell Aerospace. “By leveraging Honeywell’s long history in avionics, sensors and defense systems, we are enabling C-UAS capabilities that protect farther, respond faster and operate with minimal downtime.”

The Laila-SAMURAI system reduces reliance on expensive kinetic defenses and extends protection across vast and remote areas, especially distributed energy infrastructure like refineries, pipelines and offshore production platforms, the release said.

SAMURAI incorporates diverse customer-selected sensors and effectors and is compliant with Modular Open Systems Approach standards, according to the release.

"Drone threats have fundamentally changed the economics and operational requirements of air defense,” said James Dorris, CEO of Odys Aviation. “Critical infrastructure and forward-operating locations require persistent protection across large areas and the ability to engage threats at the horizon long before they're at the doorstep. By combining Honeywell’s SAMURAI system with the endurance, runway independence and onboard power capability of Laila, we're introducing a new airborne defense layer designed for today and into the future."