A designer and manufacturer of electronic-scanning radars and counter-drone solutions has secured a significant growth capital loan to enable it to grow its work.
Blighter Surveillance Systems Ltd has received a loan from BOOST&CO to advance its solutions, used by airports, nuclear power stations, oil/gas processing plants and other critical national infrastructure sites.
The funding will also allow Blighter, which is based in Great Chesterford, Essex, to improve its supply chain and shorten product lead times for new and existing customers in the global defence and commercial security markets.
Blighter’s technologies are deployed in 35 countries, including, by the UK Ministry of Defence in Afghanistan, in South Korea monitoring the demilitarised zone (DMZ), and by the United States Department of Defense in Iraq.
CEO Angus Hone said: “We are delighted to secure this funding as it will enable us to build on record growth and further expand our commercial client base.
“Having adapted our military-grade advanced ground radar and counter-drone solutions for use in the commercial world, we plan to leverage some early successes with airports and other critical infrastructure sites to further grow the business.
“Blighter ground surveillance radars are already successfully deployed at Stansted and Heathrow airports in the UK and at many other international airports, but we have seen a surge of interest in our counter-drone radars from airports and other critical infrastructure sites in recent years as a result of the growing sightings of rogue drones.
“And our Blighter A400 series air security radar is now deployed at Gatwick as part of the airport’s counter-drone defences following last December’s incident that brought the airport to a standstill.”
The company’s air security/counter-drone radars are optimised for the detection of small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones carrying video cameras, wireless communication systems, narcotics, explosives and other undesirable payloads.
CFO Tracy Sambrook said: “Blighter is well placed to capitalise on the growth of drone detection systems given our reputation, track record and customer base.
“And the funding is good news for all our customers as some of the loan will be used to improve our supply chain so that we can shorten the lead times for our products.”
