AgEagle Aerial Systems Inc. (NYSE:UAVS) CEO Bill Irby joined Proactive to discuss the company’s recent announcement it has secured a $2 million contract to deliver 20 eBee VISION systems to a leading distributor in the UAE, highlighting the global need for enhanced public safety and security.
This follows AgEagle's recent milestone with the US Army Corps of Engineers using their eBee TAC drone, the first fixed-wing UAV on the Defense Innovation Unit Blue UAS list.
Irby highlighted that the company aims to grow in the military domain while supporting agriculture and civil sectors, focusing on fulfilling customer commitments and strategic development. Check out the full interview below.
Proactive: Give me a bit of background in the company.
Bill Irby: Here at AgEagle, we focus primarily on robotic technologies and sensing. We consider ourselves a remote sensing company. Started back in about 2009, and then it started to gain traction as early as 2010, went public in 2018, bought a few companies and now we're in the configuration we are today. We have three centers of excellence primarily focused on drones, specialty cameras, and the software to do the control of our systems.
Is that the key to the company, the fact that you've got all the parts that you would need to fully implement something like that?
We do deliver a full-stack system. So, we consider it a necessity, right, to be able to fully integrate systems with sensors, aircraft or other robotic technologies and control systems. It’s an absolutely critical part of our strategy.
There are lots of uses for drones and one of those is military. And you've got some interesting news over the last little while, not just in North America, but also around the world.
Absolutely right. We had a key award from the French army recently. Right after that, we got an award from the UAE to provide systems to help their security. I think we're on a roll right now. We're really starting to pick up some steam. We shifted our strategy a few months ago to focus our growth efforts more on the military domain and the security domain than they had been in the past. And that's beginning to pay off and I think there's a great market out there for us.
Are you hearing that a lot more from the military about the use of drones?
Absolutely. Very, very effective systems. It's kind of just come into its own. And if you think about it as compared to a helicopter or something like that, it's a much less expensive system, especially on the small ones with a lot of flexibility for deployment in combat or security operations. Big value.
What's the focus now for the rest of this year and as you mentioned that growth strategy?
Yes, we will continue on our military trajectory. We're going to keep working with our legacy customers in agriculture and other civil areas. What's most important for us right now is to be able to deliver what we make commitments to. So, to serve the customers is number one. Number two is to continue to build out our strategy for 2025.
Quotes have been edited for clarity and style