The Strategic Elements Ltd (ASX: SOR) share price is soaring today on news the company's subsidiary will be making an autonomous vehicle in collaboration with the Australian Department of Defence.
At the time of writing, shares in Strategic Elements are up 3.49% – trading for 22.3 cents apiece.
Let's take a closer look at today's news from the exploration and information technology development fund.
Autonomous vehicle collaboration
Strategic Element's subsidiary, Stealth Technologies, will be designing and delivering an autonomous drone-carrying vehicle to help the Australian Defence Force adopt autonomous technology faster.
The project will be in collaboration with the Department's Defence Science Technology Group (DSTG).
The vehicle will be able to deliver drones and sensors to a target location, automatically detecting and sensing chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) agents on the way.
The vehicle will use Stealth Autodrive Hardware and Stealth OS Software to navigate through environments. It will also be able to launch a drone with CBRN detection and sensing abilities and have it land back in the vehicle.
The Western Australian Defence Science Centre (DSC) will provide $150,000 for the autonomous vehicle's development and an investigation into whether it could be manufactured in Western Australia.
DSTG, DSC, the University of Western Australia, and Stealth Technologies will each put $350,000 towards the collaboration.
DSTG will also provide personnel, existing CBRN search algorithms, facilities, equipment, and support.
Stealth Technologies will retain all intellectual property and commercialisation rights for CBRN detection and other defence force-related applications.
Stealth Technologies will eventually demonstrate the vehicle's abilities to the DSTG and the Army.
The company will also look into using technology to fulfil other Defence needs. These may include resupplying or intelligence, surveillance, or reconnaissance missions.
The autonomous vehicle and drone launch and land system's initial concept design is expected this quarter.
According to Strategic Elements, the global market for CBRN Defence was estimated to be worth US$16.2 billion in 2020. It's expected that will increase to US$21.9 billion by 2027.
Strategic Elements share price snapshot
Today's good news hasn't been enough to get the Strategic Elements share price back into the green.
It's currently 6% lower than it was at the beginning of 2021. However, it has gained 221% since this time last year.
The company has a market capitalisation of around $86 million, with approximately 388 million shares outstanding.
