IN Brief:
- Alerion is a compact solid-state 4D imaging radar targeting FPV, mini, autonomous, and fibre-optic-controlled drones.
- Arbe says the system has completed defence field testing and is being evaluated by counter-UAS integrators.
- Dense range, azimuth, elevation, and Doppler data is intended to support tracking, classification, sensor fusion, and effector cueing.
Arbe has launched Alerion, a compact 4D imaging radar that transfers the company’s automotive sensing technology into counter-uncrewed aircraft systems. The solid-state platform is intended to detect and track small FPV, mini, autonomous, and fibre-optic-controlled drones in environments where targets can be difficult to separate from surrounding clutter.
Arbe says Alerion has completed field testing for defence applications and is being evaluated by counter-UAS integrators. The launch formalises the company’s move beyond automotive radar into defence and homeland-security sensing, while retaining much of the RF, processing, and manufacturing technology developed for vehicle applications.
The technical crossover is substantial. Automotive radar has to distinguish vehicles, pedestrians, road furniture, and other objects while operating close to buildings and terrain. Counter-UAS radar faces a different target set but shares the requirement for angular resolution, Doppler information, track separation, and reliable operation against clutter.
Small drones increase the difficulty because their radar cross-section can be low and their flight path may sit close to the ground or surrounding structures. FPV aircraft can manoeuvre quickly, while autonomous or fibre-optic-controlled systems remove the radio-frequency control link that an electronic-support sensor might otherwise attempt to detect.
Radar does not require the target to transmit. Alerion instead derives range, azimuth, elevation, and Doppler information from reflected energy, allowing it to continue sensing a drone regardless of whether commands arrive over radio, an optical fibre, or onboard autonomous control.
The system uses a solid-state architecture with no moving parts. Arbe specifies a radar unit measuring 135 × 103 × 42mm, consuming 28W and operating from -40°C to +70°C. Those figures give integrators a clearer indication of the installation burden than the broader performance language normally attached to imaging radar.
Arbe is positioning Alerion as a sensor inside a wider counter-UAS architecture rather than as a complete detection-and-defeat product. Its output is intended to support tracking, clustering, classification, false-target filtering, sensor fusion, command-and-control integration, and slew-to-cue functions for electro-optical or infrared cameras and effectors.
That layered approach reflects the limitations of any single sensing mode. Optical systems can provide visual identification but are affected by line of sight, range, weather, and lighting. RF detectors can be highly useful when a control or telemetry link exists but lose that advantage against autonomous or fibre-controlled aircraft. Radar provides persistent physical detection but still has to distinguish drones from birds and other moving objects.
Dense 4D data can improve that classification process by preserving spatial and velocity information across multiple points on a target rather than reducing each detection to a comparatively coarse return. Arbe says Alerion can support AI-based processing and tighter cueing volumes for complementary sensors, although operational performance will depend on the installation and the wider counter-UAS system around it.
The company’s automotive technology stack includes proprietary RF silicon, radar processing, antenna architectures, and post-processing software. Arbe’s broader automotive platform has been developed for series-production applications, including a recently announced Level 3 vehicle programme with production radar deliveries scheduled from late 2027. That matters because defence users increasingly look for sensing technologies that can draw on established semiconductor and manufacturing supply chains rather than bespoke low-volume hardware alone.
Automotive scale does not make a radar automatically suitable for defence. Counter-UAS systems require different detection ranges, field-of-view arrangements, track behaviour, interfaces, environmental qualification, cybersecurity, and responses to intentional or unintentional interference. Deployment around military bases or critical infrastructure also creates stricter consequences for false positives than a laboratory demonstration.
Arbe’s current Alerion material allows modular configurations covering 120° through 360°, supporting focused or layered installations. The radar can also detect relevant ground-level movement, giving operators another source of situational information around a protected site. Those capabilities may make the hardware useful beyond a single airborne-threat track, although they increase the amount of data that command software has to interpret.
The launch sits within a broader electronics shift in counter-UAS systems. Recent DroneShield production expansion in Europe reflects growing demand for deployable counter-drone hardware, while 4D sensing technologies are also appearing in perimeter and drone-detection architectures. Radar, imaging, RF sensing, embedded compute, and classification software are increasingly being combined rather than deployed as isolated products.
Alerion is still at the integrator-evaluation stage, and Arbe has not announced production volumes or a major defence programme using the system. Range and classification performance will also have to be judged against target size, environment, antenna configuration, false-alarm limits, and the behaviour of the complete sensor network rather than a single headline specification.
The more important electronics development is the transfer itself. Imaging radar developed under automotive pressure for integration, cost control, solid-state reliability, and production repeatability is moving into a defence application where small non-emitting targets have become an urgent sensing problem. Alerion will now have to demonstrate that automotive-derived scale and resolution can survive the considerably less predictable environment of counter-UAS deployment.
