AIBRIEF
Rakurai, a Sydney startup's handheld counter drone jammer, runs on one custom radio frequency chip that integrates antenna, RF front end, power, and signal generation — a stack catalog kits piece together from third party parts.
Most handheld counter-drone jammers are catalogue assemblies that usually fight on a single band. Small drones now hop frequencies faster than those kits can keep up. Sydney startup Millibeam is betting the answer is one custom radio chip that integrates antenna, RF front-end, power, and signal generation at once — a stack that catalogue kits normally piece together from separate third-party parts.
The system, called Rakurai, is the first handheld counter-drone jammer built around Millibeam's own silicon rather than third-party parts, according to the company and Asia Pacific Defence Reporter. Intended buyers are soldiers and emergency responders in the field, plus fixed sites like airports, telecoms, and energy assets.
Millibeam's vendor-stated targets are aggressive: under 1 kilogram total, more than 1 kilometer of effective range, and over two hours of continuous operation across ISM, GNSS, and Wi-Fi 2.4/6/7 bands. The company says its link-budget values are "conservatively" chosen. Readiness is claimed at TRL 5, a defense milestone for testing in a realistic environment but still short of broad field deployment.
Federal support totals about AUD $4.6M, roughly USD $3.0M at an AUD/USD rate near 0.65 (approximate), split between the Industry Growth Program (AUD $2.6M / ~USD $1.7M) and the Supply Chain Resilience Initiative (AUD $2M / ~USD $1.3M). Investor Main Sequence frames the move as a response to a hard ceiling in off-the-shelf integration.
What remains unknown is how Rakurai actually performs against incumbents like DroneShield's RfPatrol Mk2 or the DroneGun MkIII in real conditions; no independent ADF or emergency-services testing appears in the current source set.