Anti-drone radio wave startup SkySafe secures $11.5M from Andreessen

Drones are a threat to both military and public safety, whether flown by a terrorist or just a reckless pilot. SkySafe’s radio wave technology can detect and stop rogue drones from entering unauthorized areas like military bases, stadiums, prisons and airports. SkySafe’s radio frequency signals are projected from a perimeter of nodes or even a Jeep, and force unapproved drones to leave or land while allowing permitted drones to fly.

Now just two years after launch, SkySafe has raised an $11.5 million Series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz, whose partner Lars Dalgaard will join the board. It adds to the $3 million seed led by Andreessen last year.

Meanwhile, SkySafe has secured a $1.5 million Department of Defense contract with Naval Special Warfare to provide counter-drone tech to the Navy Seals. SkySafe’s mobile defense vehicle can accompany armed forces in the field to protect a moving perimeter from drone attacks or surveillance.

SkySafe CEO Grant Jordan started SkySafe after graduating MIT and working on anti-drone technology for four years in the Air Force Research Lab. He writes that “we are rolling out a series of demonstrations, tests, and exercises for DoD customers over the next year and plan to have systems in the field in 2018.”

SkySafe’s radio wave solution could prove simpler to deploy than alternative drone defenses. Laser-based weapons that shoot down drones may be dangerous and complicated to operate. Net guns that ensnare stray drones may have limited effective ranges. SkySafe claims its RF waves can detect and deter drones at the same maximum range a drone can travel from a pilot.

Defense technologies like SkySafe are an important check against the inevitable democratization of violence. As technology improves, the destructive power available to any single human increases. From hand-to-hand combat to firearms to drones and nuclear weapons, the rapid progress of weaponry will pose new challenges for our species. Defense technology must keep up in order to maintain public safety.

More@ https://www.technapping.com

Source: Techcrunch.com

Comments

WTF is bitcoin cash and is it worth anything?

Early yesterday morning bitcoin’s blockchain forked — meaning a separate cryptocurrency was created called bitcoin cash . The way a fork works is instead of creating a totally new cryptocurrency (and blockchain) starting at block 0, a fork just creates a duplicate version that shares the same history. So all past transactions on bitcoin cash’s new blockchain are identical to bitcoin core’s blockchain, with future transactions and balances being totally independent from each other. For practical matters, all this really means is that everyone who owned bitcoin before the fork now has an identical amount of bitcoin cash that is recorded in bitcoin cash’s forked blockchain. But it’s not exactly this easy. If you control your own private keys, or hold your bitcoin in an exchange that said it would credit users’ balances with bitcoin cash, you’re fine and can access your newfound cryptocurrency right now. If you held your bitcoin with a provider like Coinbase, which said before the fork t...

Bitcoin breaks $3,000 to reach new all-time high

Bitcoin has reached a record high valuation of $3,000 per coin to complete a rollercoaster week that begin with the long-awaited split of the cryptocurrency. A number of exchanges, including popular destinations Coinbase and Kraken , valued a single bitcoin at over $3,000, an all-time high that is up $485 on the valuation one month ago. Earlier this year, Bitcoin surged to surpass $2,000 for the first time in May going on to almost reach $3,000 in June only for the valuation to crash . Over the last twelve hours, bitcoin’s value has jumped by over 10 percent as forked currency bitcoin cash has seen its valuation crash by 30 percent. Some exchanges including China’s OkCoin even put the value of one bitcoin above $3,200 right now. Finally, the surge means that the total market cap of bitcoin is more than $50 billion — $51,737,289,581 at the time of writing according to Coinmarketcap.com . A Coinbase chart shows bitcoin’s valuation has passed $3,000 per coin One chief concern around t...

Walmart expands its grocery delivery business, powered by Uber

Walmart is expanding a test of its grocery delivery service, powered by Uber, the company announced this week. The retailer is now offering grocery delivery in two new markets — Dallas and Orlando — which join Tampa and Phoenix as locations where consumers can shop online for grocery items, then opt to have them come to their home for an additional $9.95 fee. Grocery delivery has been something Walmart has experimented with for years, starting with tests in Denver and San Jose of grocery delivery using its own service and trucks. The tests involving Uber are newer, however. In June, 2016, Walmart began a trial in Phoenix, which expanded to Tampa this March. In those locations, Walmart offers grocery delivery at five local stores per market. This week’s Dallas test is larger, with 8 stores participating. In Orlando, there are four stores involved. The grocery delivery service is available via the same online grocery shopping website where customers can place their pick-up orders — a s...

Technapping

Search This Blog