By Cameron Magusic
ACT-based military drone target systems company Boresight has raised $1.2 million in a pre-IPO capital raising round and has changed its status from private to a public company.
A spokesperson for Boresight declined to comment on possible plans for an ASX listing.
Boutique financial services firm ARQ Capital acted as joint lead manager in Boresight’s March raising. ARQ acted in a similar capacity to raise $1.5 million for Boresight in a seed-round in December.
Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) records show that Boresight became a listed company on 9 February.
The move came ahead of federal defence minister Richard Marles releasing a new defence strategy on 16 April which included foreshadowing increased spending on military drones.
Now headquartered in Kingston, ACT (previously Fyshwick), Boresight appointed a new company secretary, Kyla Garic, at the beginning of March.
Boresight is led by managing director Justin Olde who has been with the company since 2022. Prior to that, Olde was an executive with another defence sector company Electro Optic Systems (ASX: EOS) for more than four years. Other directors are: co-founder Michael Sinkowitsch, UK-based Andrew Windsor and non-executive director Perth-based Blake Burton.
Boresight was established in 2020 as a subsidiary of Canberra-based defence and intelligence company Criterion Solutions.
Boresight appears well-placed to benefit from the federal government’s planned increased focus on technological innovation and deeper collaboration with the Australian defence industry sector.
Boresight recently reported recently that it had sold more than 5000 units over the past five years. Conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East have sharpened international focus on drone defence systems − counter-uncrewed aerial systems (C-UAS) − and also on training in the use of such systems, which is Boresight’s focus.
The company offers a range of systems including quadrotor and fixed-wing aerial targets that are designed to replicate evolving drone threats and enable repeatable training scenarios without risking high-value intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) assets.
According to Olde: “Every Counter-UAS system in the world needs to be tested against realistic drone targets before it can be deployed.
“And every soldier operating that system needs to train against the real threat. You cannot train effectively against a threat you have never seen fly.
“Boresight provides cost effective targets, and an easy-to-use ground control system – and that enables the consistency, repeatability and reliability that military training demands.”
Boresight has sold its systems to eight defence forces around the world – including those of Australia, Canada and New Zealand – as well as four of the six branches of the US Armed Forces. The company has also made sales to Norway and United Arab Emirates but US sales make up half of its revenue.
Boresight’s services include tailored training exercises, which it says place its personnel “at the centre of some of the most sensitive Counter-UAS capability development programs in the Western alliance”.
Boresight has two employees working out of Huntsville, Alabama – reputedly “the hub of the US defence industry” – and also has a footprint in the UK to support its international sales.
In 2022 Boresight received government $1.28 million in federal government funding “to develop affordable and expendable swarming aerial target drones with improvised or dedicated counter-small uncrewed aerial system capabilities”.
But Defence procurement in Australia continues to be an issue, according to Olde. He recently told The Canberra Times that he had “no confidence” that the Defence Department’s new Defence Delivery Agency would improve how purchasing decisions were made.
Image: A Boresight employee with one of the company’s drones.