Affordable radar as the missing link for mass drone operations

At Blue Magic Netherlands in Eindhoven, many of the pitches revolved around autonomy, sensors, and the realities of operating drones in complex environments. But one presentation stood out for tackling a problem that has quietly stalled the drone economy for years: the lack of an affordable, reliable detect-and-avoid radar system.

That was the promise put forward by Orbion Technologies, an Eindhoven-based startup developing next-generation radar systems for airborne and ground-based applications. Orbion’s message was blunt: if drones are ever to scale beyond controlled test corridors, radar must become smaller, lighter, cheaper, and smarter, fast.

One million drones a day, but under what conditions?

Orbion’s CEO Murat Iz opened with a striking projection. By 2030, more than one million drones could be flying worldwide every day, performing tasks ranging from medical deliveries and infrastructure inspections to security and surveillance. The economic upside is clear. The bottleneck is safety.

Today, most beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) drone operations still rely on human pilots and tightly controlled airspace. Regulations require reliable detect-and-avoid systems, but available technologies don’t align with the operational realities of small and medium-sized drones. Legacy radar systems exist, but they are heavy, power-hungry, and prohibitively expensive. Visual and lidar-based sensors are cheaper, but their failure rates, especially in bad weather or low visibility, are too high to satisfy regulators.

“There is no in-between solution,” Murat argued. “No affordable radar system that still delivers the performance needed for BVLOS.”

A compact radar built from the ground up

Orbion’s answer is a compact active radar system explicitly designed for drones and light aircraft. The device weighs just 800 grams and consumes approximately 10 watts of power, roughly a quarter of the power draw of comparable systems on the market. Cost-wise, Orbion claims its solution will be about 60 percent cheaper than high-end alternatives, many of which start at €20,000-€50,000.

Those savings are not cosmetic. Power consumption directly affects flight time, payload capacity, and operational cost. A lighter, more efficient radar means longer missions and fewer trade-offs for drone operators.

Crucially, Orbion owns its entire IP stack, from RF hardware to signal processing software. The technology rests on three pillars. First, a single antenna is used for both transmitting and receiving radar signals, whereas most competitors use separate antennas. This integrated design reduces weight and complexity while freeing up space for additional payloads.

Orbion Technologies at Blue Magic Netherlands, © Nadia ten Wolde

Second, Orbion generates its radar signals in a “smart” way, reducing power usage by roughly 75 percent compared to conventional approaches. Third, AI-driven classification algorithms run on custom FPGA- and DSP-based processing hardware, allowing the system to distinguish between birds, drones, and aircraft in real time.

Performance without excess

During testing, Orbion’s radar has already demonstrated detection ranges of around 1 to 1.5 kilometers for small targets, with an instrumented range of up to 6 kilometers for larger objects. The system can maintain multiple concurrent tracks and alternates seamlessly between search and tracking modes, giving operators the impression of continuous coverage.

Field of view is another design trade-off Orbion addresses pragmatically. With coverage of roughly ±60 degrees in azimuth and ±30 degrees in elevation, some customers choose to deploy two radars for full 360-degree awareness, still at a lower total cost than a single traditional system.

The choice of C-band radar is also deliberate. While higher-frequency bands offer sharper beams, the C-band provides lower propagation loss and better performance in cluttered or maritime environments. Orbion compensates for beam-width limitations with advanced angle-of-arrival algorithms that refine target location over time and suppress ground clutter.

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Beyond drones: ports, borders, and battlefields

While drone delivery is Orbion’s initial market, the company’s ambitions extend well beyond airborne radar. Around 70 percent of its architecture, Orbion says, is reusable across other segments. Ground-based versions can be scaled for critical infrastructure such as airports, seaports, data centers, and borders, where reliable detection of small objects is increasingly urgent.

Maritime applications are another obvious fit. On the open sea, cameras and lidar struggle with fog, spray, and reflections, all conditions where radar excels. And because the system is lightweight and low-power, Orbion also sees potential in forward-deployed defense scenarios, where soldiers could carry portable radar units for frontline drone detection.

The dual-use nature of the technology is explicit, though Orbion is careful about sequencing. Civil drone delivery comes first; defense applications follow once the core system is proven and certified.

From prototype to market

Orbion’s radar is currently at Technology Readiness Level 5, with ground and air tests completed. The next step is a minimum viable product with pilot partners, targeting TRL 6 in the near term. Commercial market entry for the detect-and-avoid radar is planned for 2027, followed by extended-range ground systems and more advanced sensor fusion capabilities, including jam-resistant designs.

The business case is ambitious but grounded. Orbion projects annual revenue of €20 million within five years, with gross margins of around 60 percent. The team behind the company brings decades of experience in radar, antennas, and military-grade systems.

Orbion Technologies at Blue Magic Netherlands, © Nadia ten Wolde

Making radar boring, and that’s the point

Orbion’s pitch at Blue Magic Netherlands was not flashy. It was precise, technical, and focused on constraints. That may be exactly why it resonated. Radar, the company argues, should become boring infrastructure: reliable, affordable, and everywhere it needs to be.

If drones are to move from pilot projects to everyday logistics, inspection, and security tools, detect-and-avoid can no longer be a luxury feature. Orbion’s bet is that by stripping radar down to what really matters - cost, size, weight, power, and intelligence - it can finally unlock the scale the drone industry has been promising for years.