StagOn Defence

Cheap drones now kill soldiers faster than they can react, and the air defence that exists protects bases and infrastructure, not units on the move or small boats. StagOn Defence builds portable, battery-powered systems that detect low-altitude threats early enough for a team to take cover or respond.

A small attack drone costs a few hundred pounds and gives the people it is aimed at a few seconds of warning. Fixed-site radar and acoustic arrays guard airfields and infrastructure, handheld detectors read a single signal at short range, and the soldier, patrol or small craft in between has mostly been left to spot the threat by eye. Detection that comes too late is the difference between reaching cover and not.

StagOn Defence builds low-altitude air defence that a unit can carry, power and set up itself. The system fuses several sensor types so it keeps working at night, in poor visibility and against drones that emit no radio signal, and it is designed to buy the extra seconds needed to move, jam or counter-attack. It is infantry-led and engineer-built: chief executive Isabella Baldwin brings the end user's view, and chief technology officer Nishant Bakshi built the sensor fusion engine.