The DroneShield Ltd (ASX: DRO) share price is flying high today.
Shares in the S&P/ASX 300 Index (ASX: XKO) drone defence company closed Friday trading for 89 cents. In morning trade on Monday, shares are swapping hands for $1.00 apiece, up 12.4%.
For some context, the ASX 300 is up 0.5% at this same time.
Here's what grabbing investor attention today.
DroneShield share price soars on defence contract
Investors are bidding up the DroneShield share price after the company announced it had received a package of five separate contracts totalling $32.2 million.
The contracts were placed by an in-country reseller for delivery to a military end customer in an unspecified Asian Pacific country.
The unnamed reseller is reported to be a wholly-owned subsidiary of a multi-billion dollar, global, publicly listed customer. DroneShield said this customer is contractually required to distribute the products to a major Asia Pacific military government department.
The $32 million worth of systems are for both vehicle-mounted and fixed Counter-UxS (counter-drone) systems.
DroneShield said it expects to deliver all the equipment and receive payment through the second and third quarters of calendar year 2025. The company noted that there are no additional material conditions which need to be satisfied.
What did management say?
Commenting on the new contract helping lift the DroneShield share price today, CEO Oleg Vornik said:
In close succession to the earlier order announced on 29 January 2025 from this sophisticated customer and a close military ally of Australia in the Asia Pacific region, DroneShield products are again meeting the challenge set by them.
The scale and frequency of orders has been increasing as leading counter-drone customers are moving from testing hardware to broader roll-outs. DroneShield is rapidly expanding all aspects of the business to meet this demand across multiple regions.
The ASX 200 drone defence company said that it previously has received seven standalone contracts from this reseller for this same customer between May 2024 and January 2025. Those contracts totalled around $12.3 million.
The company said the customer is not obligated to place any additional contracts.
Regarding the anonymity of the customer and the nation acquiring the drone defence technology, management said they have provided "all material information relevant to assessing the impact of the contract" on the DroneShield share price, and the announcement "is not misleading by omission".
The company stated it does not consider the identity of the customer "to be information that a reasonable person would expect to have a material effect on the price or value of the DroneShield's securities".
With today's intraday gains factored in, the DroneShield share price is up 33% in 2025.
