Caerphilly based Drone Evolution launched its new, innovative drone tethering system as part of the Welsh Government presence at the Defence & Security Equipment International (DSEI) at ExCeL, London last week.

Drone Evolution was founded in 2018 and provides aerial data to ‘make people safer and organisations better’. The company is involved in all aspects of commercial drone flying, from security monitoring to site surveys, roof inspections, and topographical surveys.

The company will be at this year’s DSEI to launch its new, milspec drone tethering system, which allows any drone/camera combination to fly for six hours at a height of up to 200m, whilst transmitting data securely via a fibre-optic milspec cable. The military system is 24V, running off a military vehicle battery, and is controlled via a portable ground station which fits neatly into a 40mm ammo can.

Toby Townrow, Communications Director at Drone Evolution, said:

“Development of our secure tethering system has been a natural progression for us and the interest we have had, both in UK and abroad, tells us that there is an urgent need for this equipment as drones are used more in security and defence roles.

“We are delighted to take Drone Evolution to its next level both in business and technology. I am particularly looking forward to a hush hush development we have been working on.

The Dragon Tethered Drone (civil) version of this system has been proven over the past year, offering large-scale event security, monitors ingress and egress, crowd behaviour response, long-term traffic counting, emergency response and air quality monitoring. Interest from the defence establishment has driven the development of the military prototype version. Development work is underway to enable beyond line of sight capability in the future.