UK company built AI optical system that tracks drones on the move

Shooting down a drone while your vehicle is moving at speed over rough terrain is one of the hardest problems in modern counter-drone defense, and it is also one of the most urgent. A British engineering company has built a system that addresses it, and that system has now been integrated into an American microwave weapon and mounted on a Turkish armored vehicle, creating a mobile counter-drone platform that can hunt and kill aerial threats without stopping.

OpenWorks Engineering, a UK-based specialist in autonomous counter-drone systems, has announced the Vision Pace as its latest product in the field of on-the-move detection, tracking, identification, and targeting. The system weighs approximately 70 kilograms (154 pounds) in its standard configuration, uses a direct-drive low-friction positioner with AI-powered stabilization to maintain microradian-level pointing accuracy even on a moving platform, and can complete 180 degrees of rotation and automatically lock onto a dynamic aerial threat in under one second. It integrates with standard interfaces including SAPIENT and ATAK, meaning it can feed targeting data directly into existing military command and control networks without requiring custom software integration.

The core engineering challenge that Vision Pace solves is stabilization. Conventional optical systems mounted on vehicles are limited in their ability to track small, fast-moving aerial targets because road vibration, vehicle acceleration, and terrain-induced motion all introduce pointing errors that accumulate quickly enough to break a tracking solution before an engagement can be completed. Vision Pace addresses this with a direct-drive positioner, meaning the optics are moved by electric motors acting directly on the mechanism rather than through gears or belts that introduce play and compliance into the system. Combined with AI-powered stabilization algorithms derived from OpenWorks’ Vision Flex product family, which has been deployed in operational counter-drone roles, the result is a platform that can maintain continuous tracking against a moving target while the host vehicle is itself moving.

The AI classification and tracking capability built into Vision Pace draws on the same machine learning architecture that OpenWorks has developed across its broader counter-UAS product line. The system autonomously identifies aerial threats from clutter, tracks them through maneuvers, and generates targeting solutions that can feed directly into kinetic or non-kinetic defeat chains without requiring continuous human operator input. The human authorization step required before firing remains at the end of the engagement sequence, but the detection, classification, and targeting work leading up to that authorization happens autonomously and faster than human reaction time allows.

The integration with ThinKom Solutions’ Alecto system represents the most significant operational application of Vision Pace disclosed to date. ThinKom Solutions, a Hawthorne, California-based company that has built a strong reputation in the defense and commercial satellite communications market through its Variable Inclination Continuous Transverse Stub antenna technology, announced the Alecto as its first high-power microwave directed energy weapon in April 2026. High-power microwave, or HPM, is a directed energy approach that defeats drone electronics by delivering intense microwave energy to the target’s onboard systems, disrupting navigation, flight controllers, or communication links without requiring a physical projectile to hit the airframe. The Alecto achieves power densities described by ThinKom as orders of magnitude higher than gallium nitride-based active electronically scanned array radar systems, and it does so in a low-profile package compact enough to mount on an infantry squad vehicle or unmanned ground vehicle.

The second confirmed integration, onto the Turkish Nomad 4×4 armored vehicle, adds a land platform dimension to Vision Pace’s operational profile. The Nomad is a Turkish-designed light tactical vehicle in the 4-wheel-drive armored car category, used across a range of missions including reconnaissance, force protection, and border security. Mounting Vision Pace on the Nomad places a full AI-optical detection and targeting system on a vehicle that can move rapidly between patrol positions, escort convoys, or respond to drone threats across an area rather than from a fixed point. The combination of vehicle mobility and on-the-move targeting capability addresses a tactical gap that stationary or vehicle-halted counter-drone systems cannot close: the ability to pursue and engage a drone threat that is itself moving through an area faster than a static system can track it.

The Vision Pace system supports the full range of counter-UAS and short-range air defense effectors, not just the Alecto HPM weapon. OpenWorks describes it as providing microradian precision targeting to kinetic defeat chains, meaning the same targeting system that cues the Alecto’s microwave beam can also direct guns, nets, or interceptor drones mounted on the same or adjacent vehicles. The plug-and-play integration approach, using common interface standards, means that a customer can configure the effector layer independently of the targeting layer, selecting the most appropriate defeat mechanism for their operational environment without redesigning the targeting system.