Operational Solutions receives GBP8 million investment

One of the patrol drones operated by Operational Solutions (OSL)

Counter-unmanned aircraft system (C-UAS) specialist Operational Solutions Ltd (OSL) has received an investment of GBP8 million (USD10.6 million) from Reading-based investor BGF.

The C-UAS market is growing rapidly and OSL already has proprietary software, experience of establishing and managing C-UAS systems at major airports, and has a global co-operation agreement with Thales. Liam Pursall of BGF said, “The inevitable and well-documented rise in the use of drones in the coming years will necessitate a clearly defined counter-drone and drone management proposition.”

OSL makes the FACE ^TM software that connects different sensors detecting, tracking, identifying and managing drones. FACE ^TM aligns with SAPIENT, which is a messaging standard for the C-UAS system developed by the UK's Defence Science and Technology Laboratories (DSTL). SAPIENT is also in contention to be the official standard for NATO . It was demonstrated in the Netherlands during the C-UAS Technical Interoperability Exercise (TIE21) that ran from 2–12 November. Two other languages – Link 16 and ASTERIX – were also trialled, however, neither was designed for the C-UAS role.

FACE ^TM is the first system accredited for SAPIENT and was put forward by the UK Ministry of Defence as the baseline software to use. Mark Legh-Smith of OSL told Janes this investment would help maintain the company's edge. Dan Carey, also of OSL, added that it would enable the firm to add capacity by hiring technical specialists such as software and hardware designers.