A Sydney-based firm is developing a new approach to drone detection, helping military operators respond to threats they have not encountered before.
DroneShield’s RfAI-3 is a third-generation radio frequency (RF) intelligence engine designed to detect drone threats beyond the known catalog of classified targets typically available to military forces.
Rather than searching only for recognized signals, the system scans the RF spectrum for emissions and compares them against previously observed drone signatures.
When it finds a complete match, RfAI-3 provides detailed information on the detected signal. For unknown matches, the system generates a new signature and provides operators with a confidence report that includes details from similar drone profiles.
Those newly generated signatures can then serve as references for future detections, allowing the system to build intelligence on emerging threats over time.
“The drone threat doesn’t wait for classification. RfAI-3 represents a fundamental shift in how we approach RF-based detection,” said DroneShield CEO Angus Bean.
“We are no longer limited to seeing only what we already know. Wideband changes the calculus for our operators and for the adversaries trying to evade them.”
Continuously Expanding Intelligence
DroneShield describes its proprietary RfAI architecture as a continuously expanding RF intelligence dataset.
It allows the company to continuously identify new drone threats, record their signal patterns, and distribute updates across deployed systems.
This allows RfAI-3’s capabilities to improve over time by drawing on accumulated intelligence rather than requiring hardware upgrades.
The system is expected to enter release in the second half of 2026, with rollout continuing through 2027.
