The Tactien Group, an independent aviation advisory firm for critical infrastructure, announced CAST (Counter-UXS Assessment & System Testing), the software platform its advisory team uses to plan, run, and score counter-drone evaluations in customers’ environments. End-users get a measured answer on which detection system works at their site(s), with every vendor held to the same scoring standard.
Utilities, refineries, data centers, and military installations are buying counter-UAS detection systems largely on vendor spec sheets and staged demonstrations. Demonstration results rarely carry into the field. Sensor placement, RF propagation, and network latency often aren’t assessed in conjunction with technology performance. A sensor that performs well in open desert can behave very differently beside high-voltage electric lines, a data center substation, or a base perimeter.
CAST scores every vendor’s detection feed against red team UAS telemetry. The platform analyzes the test event’s tracking and telemetry against a catalog of KPIs including probability of detection, track continuity, track loss, track accuracy, classification accuracy, Remote ID match, time to classification, multiple-target handling, and false positives. The scoring is deterministic, and the same raw test data can be re-scored under multiple operational standards, or an operator’s own criteria.
The Tactien advisory team uses the CAST platform to conduct the testing and evaluation. The work covers site surveys and mapping, red-team flight planning, test card development, flight operations, detection analysis, and performance reporting. CAST keeps that process consistent from site to site and vendor to vendor. Tactien remains independent and has zero financial stake in the technologies that are evaluated.
“Most end-users are making procurement decisions on published specifications and staged demonstrations,” said Nate Ernst, Founder and President of Tactien. “Those tell you a system can perform. They don’t tell you it will perform in your environment, against your requirements. We built CAST to test the variables unique to a customer’s site, give every vendor the same chance to prove its capability, and score each one against what that customer needs.”
CAST is proven for counter-UAS testing. Integration of ground, maritime, and underwater unmanned systems is scheduled for Q1 2027. CAST is already supporting Tactien’s counter-UAS verification and validation work for critical infrastructure clients.
