Finnish Company Sensofusion Develops Containerized System to Mass-Produce Interceptor Drones

A Finnish defense firm is preparing to launch a turn-key interceptor drone factory the size of a cargo crate that can be set up practically anywhere. The Tactical Drone Factory, produced by Sensofusion, is an entire drone production line packed into one container.

Each is outfitted with a suite of 3D printers, raw materials, and mechanical parts required for three personnel to produce 50 drones per day.

The company is pitching the product as totally turn-key in nature, requiring clients to supply only minimal manpower. ” Sensofusion promises the package will supply the machines and materials necessary to create 2,000 interceptor drones. The Tactical Drone Factory will come with proprietary software for detecting and countering incoming drones, as well as an AI-powered client for procuring materials after the initial stock of interceptor drones is exhausted.

Clients can stack multiple factories to increase production capacity or plant individual factories across a war zone to space out supply lines. They can also remove the production line from the container and refit it to a different structure. Sensofusion focuses exclusively on the production of interceptor drones to take down incoming vehicles before they can detonate their payload.

The factories are expected to begin shipping by the end of Q2. The factories come packaged in a metal container identical to a normal shipping crate, which also gives it a stealth aspect when hidden among hundreds of containers. Designs manufactured today may already be tactically obsolete by the time they reach the front line.

Instead the Tactical Drone Factory manufactures the right drone, at the right time, wherever it’s needed. If a new drone threat is identified, the counter-design can be in production on the spot within hours. Interceptor drones have emerged as crucial defense systems in the age of unmanned aerial vehicle attacks.

Unlike attack drones, which carry explosive payloads, these lightweight, cheaply produced interceptors are often little more than remotely guided hunks of plastic meant to collide with and detonate incoming UAVs. Both types are several times cheaper than more exquisite missiles and missile interceptors.

U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Tactical Technology Office currently has a request for information for an automated containerized drone swarm capability. The request specifically states that they are seeking storage containers that provide fully autonomous drone storage, logistics management, launch, recovery, and recharge or refuel while conforming to the intention of a standardized military container.

Washington Examiner reported on the development from Helsinki.