The Star: October 12, 2023

The Star Thursday October 12 2023
16
NEWS
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
Kiwi at cutting edge of Ukraine
Most people have
never heard of Oleg
Vornik, but Vladimir
Putin almost certainly
has. Bruce Munro talks
to the Russian-born,
Christchurch-raised
head of a multimilliondollar,
counter-drone
technology company
playing a significant role
in the Ukraine-Russia
war
OLEG VORNIK IS speaking
via video link from his office,
situated about a kilometre from
the Sydney Opera House, talking
about the ethics of where his
rapidly expanding company’s
cutting-edge counter-drone
technology should, and should
not, be sold.
The world’s nations are
divided into three groups, the
DroneShield chief executive says.
There is the white list –
countries like the United States,
the United Kingdom, New
Zealand and France.
There is also the blacklist –
players such as Russia, China,
North Korea and Iran.
“You know, the usual fun
crew,” he says.
And there is the grey list,
whose members change from
time to time; countries not
strictly beyond the pale, but
with whom Vornik and his team
choose not to do business.
“We’re saying no, no. You’ve
got to choose what side you’re
on. And if you’re on the side of
the good guys, you can’t ship to
anybody else.”
For those not first-naming
it with generals and ministers
of defence, DroneShield is an
unfamiliar moniker. Less than
a decade ago, however, even the
military brass who are now so
aware of the capabilities of the
Australian company’s dronedefeating
weapons had never
heard of it.
DroneShield began creating
the counter-drone industry
before most people had any
idea drones – unmanned aerial
devices remotely guided to scope
out enemy forces, hack software,
PART TO PLAY:
New Zealandraised
defence
technology
company head
Oleg Vornik
is pleased his
company’s
counterdrone
guns
are playing a
“meaningful”
role in Ukraine’s
response
to Russia’s
aggression.
direct missile attacks and divebomb
with explosive payloads –
would become the global poster
child of 21st-century conflict.
It was then, in the early 2010s,
when quadcopters were still
toys flying around living rooms,
that two US scientists foresaw
their potential as a military
threat. Using cutting-edge audio
technology to detect the sound
of an approaching drone, they
tested their anti-drone prototype
at the Boston Marathon just two
years after a domestic terrorist
attack killed three people and
injured hundreds of other
runners and spectators.
“The Wall Street Journal ran
an article about this really
unusual, innovative technology
dealing with a threat nobody had
thought about before,” Vornik
explains.
Investors saw an opportunity,
bought a majority stake and soon
realised a lot more money would
be needed if DroneShield was to
make the most of having pole
position in this nascent market.
So, they gave Vornik a call.
At that point, he was an
investment banker in Australia.
But not a happy one.
“I felt I had overstayed my
welcome.
“I just didn’t enjoy writing
pitch books and trying to present
ideas to other people, for those
people to decide and create
something.
“You feel like you are on the
stands watching gladiators, as
opposed to being a gladiator
yourself.”
The investors were looking
to hand DroneShield’s day-today
reins to someone familiar
with Australia and its “really
generous” research-anddevelopment
tax incentives;