The latest contract is the third this year for the Slinger C-UAS system for EOS. Photo: EOS.
Canberra’s Electro Optic Systems (EOS) has announced it has won an order valued at $20 million for its Slinger counter-drone system.
The €11.4 million order from an unnamed Western European NATO country comes at a time when European airports and other key infrastructure sites have seen increased drone activity, including from suspected Russian grey zone activities.
Manufactured at EOS’s Hume factory, the 400-kilogram Slinger is a fully stabilised remote weapon system (RWS) that can be controlled from within a vehicle or a building.
The system comprises a 30-millimetre Bushmaster M230LF cannon integrated with a four-axis thermal and day camera sighting system, and a 4D targeting radar with an active, electronically steered array.
The system can be integrated with light or armoured vehicles, and is capable of tracking and engaging moving drones well beyond 800 metres while mobile.
EOS says the contract is in response to an urgent operational requirement, and that deliveries will occur within six months. It said the order included the RWS as well as spare parts, training and other, unspecified items.
The latest contract comes on top of 2024 sales of the Slinger RWS to Ukraine and Germany, May and August 2025 sales to another European country and to NATO respectively, and the October 2025 announcement of a contract with Hanwha Defence Australia to supply its smaller R400 RWS to the Australian Army for its new Redback Infantry Fighting Vehicles (IFV).
It also coincides with news that EOS has entered into an agreement to acquire the rights to produce and develop a drone interceptor system from UK-based MARSS Group.
The composite Interceptor is an AI-driven drone-like Counter-UAS (C-UAS) system that is driven by electric pusher propellors and intercepts enemy drones by physically crashing into them. It comes in 1.5 kg Short Range (SR) and 8 kg Medium Range (MR) variants, and has an intercept range of between one and five kilometres.
When launched, the system pursues its target using onboard imaging, an infrared seeker, and AI-based guidance. The Interceptor has a speed of up to 280 km/h, and its configuration of an elongated centre-body, cruciform swept wings and rear-facing propellors means it can survive impacts with enemy drones and be reused.
Perhaps of most interest to EOS is that it adds another effector to the company’s portfolio of C-UAS systems, which includes kinetic RWS and high-energy, laser-based systems. The company says a version of the Interceptor is also able to be integrated with RWS to offer all three options in one compact package.
In a statement to the ASX, EOS said it had agreed to acquire all of the Interceptor assets from MARSS and employ the specialised engineers who created the Interceptor to continue its development.
Concept art of an Interceptor destroying an enemy drone. Image: MARSS.
Original Article published by Andrew McLaughlin on PS News.
