Hanwha Aerospace Invests in U.S. Firm Having Unique Drone Suppression Technology

South Korea's Hanwha Aerospace has invested $17.8 million (approximately 22.5 billion won) in U.S. based Fortem Technologies that has developed a novel mentod to bring down drones by throwing nets over them.
The investment is through a mechanism called SAFE in which the investment is paid in advance and shares are acquired at a discounted price later, a Hanwha release said.
Fortem Technologies has an anti-drone defense system that detects illegal drones using a self-developed unique radar, then launches a UAV that throws a net over the offending drone effectively neutralizing it.
Since it does not destroy the drone, it can fundamentally block the occurrence of collateral damage from falling fragments of the drone in the city, and is already being used in practice.
Hanwha plans to cooperate with Fortem Technologies to secure drone response technology combined with existing weapon systems and apply it to the anti-collision function of urban air mobility (UAM) in the future.
According to a global market research firm, as various terrorism and illegal acts using drones increase worldwide, the drone response market is expected to grow from $1.4 billion in 2021 to $12.6 billion in 2030.
An official from Hanwha Aerospace said, "We will secure world-class drone response technology to protect national security as a national defense company, and advance into related markets to develop Hanwha's weapon system to the global top-tier level."