Microflown AVISA

Dutch developer of passive acoustic battlefield sensors from Arnhem whose systems locate artillery, small arms fire and vehicles and detect drones with the SKYSENTRY counter-UAS solution.

Microflown AVISA B.V. is based in Arnhem, the Netherlands, and develops acoustic situational awareness systems for the defence and security markets. They are built on the Microflown, a MEMS-based acoustic particle velocity sensor that provides directional broadband sensing; the company shares its Arnhem address with Microflown Technologies. Its systems detect, locate and classify small arms fire, rockets, artillery and mortars as well as engine-driven platforms such as ground vehicles, helicopters and UAVs.

The SKYSENTRY counter-UAS solution uses networked CASTLE sensor posts that listen in a full hemisphere and estimate the bearing and elevation of airborne targets, which can be used to cue other sensors or effectors. The system is passive, unattended and works day and night without line of sight; a sensor post can be set up by one person in under ten minutes. In initial tests it detected small quadcopters at up to 250 m, small fixed-wing drones at up to 1 km and helicopters at up to 10 km. It can be supplied as a stand-alone system or integrated into multi-sensor C-UAS architectures.

For counter-battery tasks the company offers the Mobile Sound Ranging Array (MSRA) and the Acoustic Target Impact Localization System (ATILS); for vehicle survivability it offers ACLOGUS for gunshot localisation and the ACCOPS collaborative protection system for manned and unmanned military vehicles. Other products include the Acoustic Multi Mission Sensor and the Acoustic Pointer payload for fixed-wing drones. On behalf of the Royal Netherlands Army, the Dutch Ministry of Defence bought RAM-SCORE acoustic impact localisation systems for artillery training from 2012.