DND Tests Zighra's AI Platform IntentHunter for Counter-Drone Threats
DND Tests Zighra's IntentHunter AI for Counter-Drone Threats

Zighra Inc. has announced that it has been awarded a contract by the Department of National Defence (DND) through the Innovative Solutions Canada (ISC) program to support the testing of IntentHunter, an AI-powered intent inference and situational awareness software platform. This platform is designed to help counter rapidly evolving drone threats, known as uncrewed aerial systems (UAS).

Addressing the Challenge of Drone Threats

UAS threats are increasingly low-cost, adaptive, and difficult to interpret using static signatures alone, particularly as adversaries adjust emissions, configurations, and behaviours over time. The operational challenge is no longer just detection; it is understanding intent and quickly distinguishing between trusted, authorized activity and potential threats in dynamic conditions.

How IntentHunter Works

IntentHunter is an autonomy-enabling intelligence layer that transforms real-time sensing observations into operator-ready contextual signals, explainable alerts, and analytics. This enables teams to triage and prioritize novel detections while keeping operators in control of decisions. The platform is built to support multi-sensor integration within the testing environment. Depending on available sensors, it can ingest and fuse inputs such as radio frequency (RF), electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR), and radar sensor modalities.

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It identifies anomalous activity using real-time behavioural patterns, inferring manoeuvre behaviours from trajectory and identifying coordination patterns across observations, then provides explainable context to support operator decisions. Rather than relying solely on static threat libraries, IntentHunter applies behavioural intent inference to surface suspicious patterns and potential deception behaviours, and presents results through an interface optimized for real-time situational awareness and post-event review.

CEO Statement

“Drone warfare has changed the problem,” said Deepak Dutt, CEO of Zighra. “It’s no longer about ‘did we detect something?’ It’s now about ‘what is it, what is it doing, and is it friend, foe, or unknown?’ IntentHunter is built for behavioural intent detection, helping teams hunt drone activity based on intent, not just signatures, by turning multi-sensor observations into explainable, autonomy-enabling decision support. We’re proud to support DND’s testing objectives and contribute to Canadian sovereign capability in Counter-UAS.”

About Zighra

Zighra is a Canadian defence AI company delivering AI-enabled sensing, signal fusion, and electromagnetic spectrum awareness for contested environments. Zighra’s platforms apply adaptive, explainable AI to detect anomalous behaviours across RF and multi-sensor data streams, supporting Counter-UAS missions and autonomy-enabled operations.

For more information, visit https://zighra.com or follow @zighra on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Press Contact: Vipin Menon, Zighra Inc., info@zighra.com, +1 613-663-9090.

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