U.S. Army Selects Nokomis to Develop Passive Drone Detection, Tracking, and Identification System

PITTSBURGH - March 20, 2025 - PRLog -- The United States Army has awarded Nokomis, Inc. a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract to develop a next generation system that detects, tracks, and identifies airborne drone radio frequency transmissions using passive sensors.

Drones and Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) have become ubiquitous and lethal in modern conflicts. It is of the highest importance to develop detection and mitigation solutions that protect U.S. soldiers against the threat of a UAS attack. To address this technology gap, Nokomis will develop and demonstrate a passive low Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP) Counter-UAS (C-UAS) detection, identification and tracking system that is versatile, easily deployable, and operable on ground vehicles.

The system will be developed based on the Hiawatha Radio Frequency (RF) class of sensors that have been proven to detect and track UAS. The low SWaP sensor will passively detect both active and unintended RF emissions from UAS electronics and have the capability to track multiple UAS simultaneously.

"The demand for a system that can passively track, identify, and locate UAS in real time cannot be understated. Drone swarms are an increasing threat and it's imperative now more than ever that the warfighter has the capability to detect and classify UAS. We're looking forward to working with the U.S. Army to develop a versatile system that will detect, track and identify airborne drones," stated Nokomis CEO, Walter J. Keller III.

About Nokomis, Inc.

Nokomis is dedicated to the development of advanced capabilities across the DoD that leverage unintended RF emissions through state-of-the-art RF sensors with unparalleled (-170 dBm) sensitivity for device exploitation. This technology provides unrivaled capability for exploiting simple and complex systems for battle damage indicators (BDI) for Directed Energy Weapons, detection, identification, geolocation (DIG), advanced spectrum monitoring, diagnostics, and operational technology (OT) cyber-physical security.

https://www.nokomisinc.com/