Sovereign drones,
in service of the State.
An Irish-owned, Irish-built drone factory closing the maritime capability gap — protecting the cables, coasts and critical infrastructure the country depends on. Eleven mission areas, one domestic supply chain.
Transatlantic cable protection
Up to 97% of intercontinental data crosses subsea cables — and a dense bundle of them makes landfall on Ireland's coast. Persistent drone patrols detect loitering vessels, anchor-drag risk and tampering long before a cut.
- Continuous overwatch of cable landing zones and approaches
- Anomaly alerts on AIS-dark vessels lingering above cable routes
- Evidence-grade imagery handed to the Naval Service in minutes
Maritime domain awareness
Ireland holds one of Europe's largest sea-to-land ratios with one of its smallest patrol fleets. Long-endurance drones multiply every hull, extending the picture hundreds of kilometres offshore at a fraction of a ship-day's cost.
- Force multiplier — one operator covers a wide sector
- Fisheries & EEZ monitoring without sailing a vessel
- Cued response — vector a patrol ship only when it matters
Coastal interdiction support
Remote inlets and a long, sparsely-watched coastline are a known route for smuggling and trafficking. Drones provide overhead cueing for customs and Garda teams, tracking small craft from first contact to landfall.
- Track-and-hand-off of suspect small craft in real time
- Night & low-visibility operation with thermal payloads
- Officer safety — eyes on target before the team moves in
Offshore wind & grid inspection
Ireland's 5 GW-by-2030 offshore-wind target puts billions of euro of turbines and export cables in the water. Autonomous inspection drones cut survey cost and keep crews off the blades in hostile sea states.
- Blade & tower inspection without rope-access teams
- Export-cable and substation survey on a fixed schedule
- Predictive data feeding asset-management systems
Critical-infrastructure security
Ports, interconnectors, gas terminals, water and the electricity grid are the soft underbelly of a modern state. Routine drone sweeps give operators a continuous, time-stamped record of every perimeter and asset.
- Perimeter patrol of ports, substations and terminals
- Change detection — flag what moved since the last sweep
- Rapid post-incident assessment without site entry
Search & rescue
In a SAR call, minutes decide outcomes. A drone launched from a station or vessel is overhead before a helicopter spins up — widening the search pattern and dropping flotation or comms to a casualty in the water.
- First on scene while crewed assets are still inbound
- Thermal search across swell and surf at night
- Payload drop — lifejacket, light or radio to a casualty
Land, agriculture & CAP compliance
Aerial survey turns parcel inspection, land-use verification and CAP-payment checks from a paperwork exercise into ground-truthed data — while giving farmers crop-health insight on the same flight.
- Parcel verification for CAP and land-eligibility checks
- Crop & soil multispectral health mapping
- Disease & flood early detection across counties
Environmental & flood monitoring
From bog rewetting to coastal erosion and forestry health, repeatable aerial survey gives the State a quantified, year-on-year baseline — and an immediate eye over flood and wildfire events as they unfold.
- Flood & wildfire live mapping for emergency coordination
- Carbon & habitat baselining for climate reporting
- Coastal erosion tracked to the metre over time
Heritage & archaeology survey
Photogrammetry and LiDAR from a low-flying drone reveal earthworks and monument detail invisible from the ground, building a precise 3-D record of Ireland's heritage estate for conservation and public access.
- Non-invasive 3-D capture of sites and monuments
- LiDAR reveals sub-surface and overgrown features
- Digital twin for conservation planning and tourism
Long-range BVLOS logistics
Beyond-visual-line-of-sight corridors connect the islands and remote communities — carrying medical samples, blood and urgent supplies in minutes over terrain that takes a ferry or road hours to cross.
- Island & remote medical and supply delivery
- BVLOS corridors flown to IAA standards
- Resilient when sea or road links are cut by weather
Sovereign capability & jobs
A drone bought abroad is a dependency; a drone built in Ireland is a capability. A domestic factory keeps the IP, the data, the spares pipeline and the skilled jobs on Irish soil — and keeps the supply chain free of foreign kill-switches.
- No foreign dependency — firmware, spares and IP held at home
- Skilled jobs and an exportable defence-industrial base
- Trusted supply — no banned-component or backdoor risk
The capability gap is a build decision.
Every mission area above runs on the same Irish-built airframe and the same domestic supply chain. The question for Government is no longer whether Ireland needs this capability — only whether it owns it.