ZE Government Solutions (ZEGS), a subsidiary of AI-based gun detection leader ZeroEyes, has announced that it has been selected by US Air Force program AFWERX for a contract in the amount of $1.25 million, focused on ZeroEyes Thermal Threat Detection (ZTTD) to investigate its potential to fill capability gaps in the Department of the Air Force (DAF). 

System integrated

According to the company, the integrated solution, ZTTD, combines ZEGS’ AI-based object detection video analytics with a commercially available thermal sensor unmanned aerial system (UAS) platform to proactively identify, track and respond in real-time to imminent threats that are not visible to the human eye.

This thermal solution will provide situational awareness in environments where traditional intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) may be unavailable, such as a heavily camouflaged combative environment or an aerial threat flying within the walls of a base installation. 

Streamlining innovation

The Air Force Research Laboratory and AFWERX have partnered to streamline the small business innovation research (SBIR) and small business technology transfer (STTR) process by accelerating the small business experience through a faster proposal to award timelines, changing the pool of potential applicants by expanding opportunities to small business and losing bureaucratic overhead by continually implementing process improvement changes in contract execution.

The DAF began offering ‘The Open Topic’ SBIR/STTR program in 2018 which expanded the range of innovations the DAF funded and now in June 2023, ZEGS will start its journey to create and provide innovative capabilities that will strengthen the national defense of the US.

“During my years of military service, I became very familiar with the risks posed by fog, dust, foliage, night and other elements that make ISR difficult,” said Mike Lahiff, CEO and Co-Founder of ZeroEyes, parent company of ZEGS. “The combination of our proactive AI-based gun detection solution, UAS technology and advanced thermal imagery detection creates a triple crown of security that will immediately alert airmen when a gun-related threat is present, any time of year, in any weather.”