Department 13
Canberra counter-drone firm building passive RF drone detection (Scout), Atlas monitoring software and Dart mitigation; runs a national detection network.
Department 13 is an Australian drone detection and counter-drone technology company headquartered in Forrest, Canberra, in the Australian Capital Territory. It states that it is 100 percent Australian owned and that its sensors and user interface are developed and built in Canberra. Ben Westgarth serves as both chief executive and chief technology officer. The company's systems work in the radio-frequency domain: they detect drones and their controllers passively and, in the mobile product, mitigate them by protocol manipulation rather than by jamming or kinetic means.
The product line has four elements. Scout is a passive RF detection system that locates and tracks drones and the pilots' controllers with omnidirectional coverage, and can be installed permanently or set up temporarily at a site. Atlas is the operational-awareness software layer: a drone management platform that shows live location and flight paths, separates known from unknown drones, logs data, exposes a RESTful API, runs on phone, tablet and desktop, and can be hosted in the cloud or locally in an air-gapped deployment; the company cites a monitoring radius of five kilometres. Dart is a platform-mounted counter-UAS system that detects, tracks and mitigates drones on the move or while stationary, described as non-kinetic and non-jamming and supporting high and low frequency bands. The Australian Drone Detection Network (ADDN) is a national subscription service built from distributed passive RF sensors, giving subscribers a single real-time picture of drone activity across sites and jurisdictions. A further element named Bilby is referenced as part of the same ecosystem but is not described on the pages reviewed.
Target sectors are defence, law enforcement, correctional facilities, critical infrastructure, sensitive sites and major events, with Atlas also offered to commercial businesses. In May 2026 the company announced an accelerated rollout of the ADDN and said it had active deployments with defence, law enforcement, critical infrastructure, correctional services, mining and resources operators, government agencies and airports, without naming individual customers. It has worked with the Commonwealth under Defence's Project LAND 156 counter-UAS capability program and positions its products for fielding through Defence's Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator (ASCA). The company does not publish detection ranges by frequency band, sensor weights or power figures on its public product pages; detailed specifications are distributed as downloadable brochures.
Primary type & automation activities this supplier delivers:
Scout drone detection
Passive RF sensor that detects and tracks drones and their controllers, feeding the Atlas platform.
Atlas operational awareness platform
Drone management software showing live drone and pilot positions, flight paths and logs.
Dart mobile counter-UAS
Platform-mounted RF counter-drone system that detects, tracks and mitigates drones via protocol manipulation.
Australian Drone Detection Network
National subscription network of passive RF sensors giving a single real-time picture of drone activity.
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Contact Department 13
WEBSITE
https://department13.comPHONE
+61 1300 376 631HEADQUARTERS
Australia
Company Facts
Founded
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Primary Role
Manufacturer
Company Size
-
Primary Region
Oceania
Annual Sales
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Funding Stage
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Funding Total
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Keywords
- Department 13
- D13
- Department 13 International
- drone detection
- passive rf sensing
- c-uas
- protocol manipulation
- airspace awareness
- critical infrastructure protection
- correctional facilities
- restful api
- Manufacturer
- Software/Algorithm
- Drone/eVTOL
- Perception & Vision
- Cloud & Data
- Counter Drone
- Defense & Security
