Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, has completed the final testing phase of its prize contest focused on countering the criminal use of drones at the European Union’s borders. The trials were hosted by the Portuguese Air Force, at Campo de Tiro base, in Samora Correia, providing real-life conditions to assess the systems in action.
Four companies reached the final stage: Adevex Solutiones (Spain), Dat Con (Slovenia), MBDA France (France) and Nordic Air Defense (Sweden). Each demonstrated its technology against simulated drone threats such as smuggling and unauthorised surveillance.
The winner of the contest will be announced in the coming weeks.
The goal of the contest is to support European law enforcement with non-military tools to detect, track and stop drones used in unlawful cross-border activities. The selected systems were tested for detection accuracy, flexibility and suitability for use by border and coast guard teams across Europe.
This is Frontex’s second prize contest focused on the criminal use of drones, following a successful 2023 competition on detecting low-flying objects.
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