00Situation
Fibre-optic-controlled quad-rotor drone with spool trailing a filament
Fig. 01 , Quad-rotor carrying a fibre-optic spool. The filament trailing from the airframe replaces the radio link, leaving RF sensors nothing to detect.

A growing class of drones has no radio link to listen for..

Fibre-optic-controlled and fully autonomous aircraft emit no signal. To Radiofrequency-based counter-UAS sensors, they simply are not there.

ZELOVIAN closes that gap with electro-optical and thermal detection at the edge. It is built by Lisario Systems Ltd to slot into existing counter-UAS architectures , not to replace them.

01The gap

RF detection is deaf to aircraft that don't broadcast.

Most fielded counter-UAS sensors work by listening. They fingerprint the control link between operator and aircraft, and derive detection, direction and classification from that signal.

Two production threat classes deny that method entirely.

  1. FO

    Fibre-optic-controlled drones

    The command channel is a spooled physical fibre trailing from the airframe. No radio emission. Widely used in current combat operations.

  2. AU

    Fully autonomous drones

    No operator link after launch. On-board navigation and terminal guidance; nothing to intercept, nothing to jam.

01·AConsequence

Against these targets, an RF-only kill chain never begins. Detection fails; every downstream layer inherits the miss.

02Approach

See the aircraft. Don't listen for it.

Electro-optical and thermal imaging sees the airframe itself , the target's physical presence, not its emissions. Combined with edge-AI classification and tracking on commodity hardware, this yields a detection modality that is indifferent to whether the target uses radio, fibre, or nothing at all.

Sensing

EO + thermal

Visible-band and long-wave infrared imagery, day and low-light. The physical target is the signal.

Compute

Edge AI

Detection, classification and tracking inference performed at the node. No cloud dependency, low latency by construction.

Hardware

Commodity, manufacturable

Built from off-the-shelf sensors and compute. Designed for unit economics and volume production, not bespoke assembly.

No performance figures are published on this page. Detection range, field-of-view, classification accuracy and latency will be reported against measured trials, not projected specification.

03Configurations

One sensing core. Two deployments.

The same detection, classification and tracking core is packaged as a stationary sensor and as the seeker of a high-speed interceptor. The optics and the airframe differ; the perception stack does not.

Config · AIn development

Fixed detection node

Stationary, networked EO/IR sensor. Built towards SAPIENT compatibility so it can be added to an existing counter-UAS command-and-control architecture and cue compliant, low-collateral effectors.

  • Prisons and secure custodial estates
  • Airports and controlled airspace
  • Critical national infrastructure
  • Military installations
Config · BPlanned

Interceptor seeker

The same perception core as the on-board sensing and terminal-guidance layer of a high-speed VTOL interceptor. Detection, classification and tracking move with the engagement instead of being handed off to it.

  • Mobile response against RF-silent threats
  • Terminal guidance under EO/IR track
  • Shared perception stack with Config A
04Integration

The sensing layer existing systems are missing.

ZELOVIAN is not a full counter-UAS system. It is the component that current systems lack against RF-silent threats. Integrators and end users are looking for exactly this piece.

Kill chain , where ZELOVIAN sits
  1. 01

    Detect

    EO/IR node acquires target against sky.

  2. 02

    Classify

    Edge model returns airframe class and confidence.

  3. 03

    Track

    Persistent track ID handed onto the C2 layer.

  4. 04

    Cue

    SAPIENT-formatted message cues compliant effectors.

  5. 05

    Engage

    Effector , kinetic or non-kinetic , resolves the target.

SAPIENT COMPATIBILITY IN DEVELOPMENT

Amber rule marks the stages ZELOVIAN provides. Stages 04–05 rely on the integrator's C2 and effector selection.

05Company

Independent engineering. HQ London.

ZELOVIAN is developed by Lisario Systems Ltd, a UK-registered engineering company based in London. Independent, unaffiliated with any prime contractor.

Registered
United Kingdom · Sept 2025
Companies House
16691071
Registered office
128 City Road, London EC1V 2NX
Headquarters
London, United Kingdom
06Contact

Request a technical briefing.

We reply to enquiries individually. Please indicate the capacity in which you're writing so the right engineer picks it up.

Or write directly to zelovian@lisario-systems.co.uk.

Enquiry type

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