Canberra-based Boresight Pty Ltd says it has sold more than 5,000 military target drone systems over the past five years, as Western armed forces expand training and testing programs designed to counter the growing use of small unmanned aircraft.
In material distributed via Medianet, Boresight described itself as a supplier of small target uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) used to support counter-UAS (C-UAS) training and evaluation. The company is headquartered in Fyshwick, ACT, and says it has US operations in Huntsville, Alabama. It is a subsidiary of Canberra-based Criterion Solutions.
The company said its military customers include 11 Western armed forces, listing the Australian Defence Force, British Army, Canadian Armed Forces, New Zealand Defence Force, the United States Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force, and the Dutch, Italian and Finnish armies.
Boresight also named a range of commercial and defence industry customers, including Northrop Grumman, Anduril, DroneShield, Nammo and Houbara, a joint venture of MBDA Group and QinetiQ. The company said it also provides UAS operator training and tailored exercises.
The release argues that the rapid spread of low-cost drones has increased demand for C-UAS systems that can detect, track and neutralise hostile aircraft, and that those systems require affordable and repeatable aerial targets for testing and training. Boresight managing director Justin Olde said: “Every Counter-UAS system in the world needs to be tested against realistic drone targets before it can be deployed. And every soldier operating that system needs to train against the real threat. You cannot train effectively against a threat you have never seen fly. Boresight provides cost effective targets, and an easy to use ground control system and that enables the consistency, repeatability and reliability that military training demands.”
Boresight’s product range includes the BQ-400 Raider quadcopter, which the company says weighs 1.3kg, can reach speeds of up to 65kph and has flight endurance of up to 25 minutes. Other systems mentioned include the BQ-750 quadcopter and the BS-350 quadcopter, with additional fixed-wing and first-person-view (FPV) platforms listed as in development.
The company said it operates a proprietary ground control system capable of managing multiple UAS simultaneously, including swarming configurations, and that it is a member of the Australian Association for Unmanned Systems (AAUS). It also said it operates in compliance with Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) regulations and has CASA-certified remote pilot licence holders on staff.
The claims come as defence organisations increasingly focus on lessons from recent conflicts, where small drones have been used for reconnaissance and as loitering munitions. For defence forces and defence industry, the availability of realistic targets is a practical constraint on how quickly C-UAS equipment and tactics can be assessed and fielded at scale.
