Amid the return of flights as the world prepares for a recovery from COVID-19 which shutdown the international travel economy, the European Union is ramping up their drone defence with purchase orders placed with electronic warfare specialists DroneShield (ASX: DRO).

The orders are part of an agreement reached in May 2020 when DroneShield was selected as the preferred supplier of drone defence products to European Union police forces.

“Due to COVID, there have been initial delays in mobilisation of orders under the agreement, which have now commenced despite continuous COVID constraints in Europe,” said DroneShield CEO, Oleg Vornek.

“While this initial purchase is small at approximately $100,000, it represents the first purchase under what we expect to be a multi-million dollar agreement supplying DroneGuns and associated counter-UAS products across dismounted, vehicle and fixed site range, to police forces across EU.”

As part of the agreement, DroneShield will manage the sales, training and local support for all DroneGuns through their regional partner ProFoce BV.

The disruptive power of drones and unmanned vehicles was highlighted in 2018 when an unknown drone was identified flying above Gatwick Airport. Without the necessary equipment in place at the time, the drone caused a shutdown of Gatwick for two days with more than 1000 flights cancelled as part of the airport’s anti-terrorism protocols.

No persons were ever charged by local authorities over the drones which police maintain were flown with malicious intent.

The initial purchase order from EU police forces follows on from a strong recovery period for DroneShield which was adversely affected by the pandemic before reporting their strongest revenue for the quarter ending 31 December 2020, expected to deliver $2.1m in customer receipts.