Hidden Level has received a $100-million contract from the US Department of Defense to provide passive sensing capabilities for counter-unmanned aircraft systems (C-UAS).
The award is intended to accelerate the procurement and deployment of next-generation sensing technologies to detect and track increasingly sophisticated drone threats.
Under the agreement, the New York-based company will provide its passive sensing platform, including hardware and software, for use across Department of Defense organizations.
Hidden Level uses passive radio-frequency (RF) sensing to detect, track, and identify both crewed and uncrewed aircraft without emitting signals, reducing the likelihood that the sensors themselves will be detected.
The firm’s technologies can also detect and track drones that do not actively transmit radio-frequency signals, including RF-silent aircraft.
While integrating with existing command-and-control systems through an open architecture, the sensors are expected to support airspace monitoring around military installations, test ranges, and sections of the US border.
Previous Evaluations
The award follows Hidden Level’s performance in several US government testing and evaluation programs.
Its passive sensing technology was named among the top-performing systems in the Defense Innovation Unit’s Low-Cost Sensing Challenge, an initiative conducted with US Northern Command and the US Army to identify affordable, scalable sensing technologies for C-UAS.
Hidden Level said its solution was selected as one of four top performers from 10 finalists who had advanced from an initial pool of 115 submissions.
The company added that its technology was subsequently evaluated during the Technology Readiness Experiment 25.2 and Falcon Peak 25.2 exercises before the contract was awarded.
