Calibre interview: Stuart Wilson, BD director, Allen Vanguard

Radio-controlled improvised explosive devices (R-CIEDs) were a defining characteristic of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. With those wars now in the rear-view mirror, the R-CIED has also faded as a threat that European forces focus on. But, did you know that it remains a considerable problem around the world? R-CIEDs are routinely used to target Colombian forces, for instance, and are employed throughout Africa. Allen Vanguard is a Canadian company that specialises in radio-frequency jammers, with an extensive customer based and long-standing success in the counter-R-CIED space. So, Calibre Defence met with Stuart Wilson, the company’s business development director during DSEI UK to learn more about how the company is adapting and shaping its business to the emerging threats and customer demands. 

Allen Vanguard, a growing EW house

“We are moving more prominently into EW for emerging Canadian government requirements. This builds on the C-UAS capability that we have been developing over the past eight years, and our counter R-CIED  systems from before that,” Stuart told me. We took a few minutes at the Allen Vanguard stand to talk through the company’s future over a can of Coke. “In the C-UAS space, we’ve partnered with world leaders because we are great at the defeat aspect, but recognise others are better at the detection element.” He motioned over to the quadbike on the stand, which was covered in radio frequency detection equipment from Metis. The two companies shared a stand at DSEI, and launched Securis, a trailer-based C-UAS capability, which also includes sensors from Blighter and OpenWorks. The two capabilities are indicative of Allen Vanguard’s approach; Securis provides multi-spectrum detection, which is key to locating, tracking, and ultimately defeating drones. Their low radar cross section and small size can make detection through radar or electro-optics alone a challenge. Combining three different sensor modalities can increase the likelihood and granularity of detection. Working with the three other partners, Allen Vanguard is focused on the defeat mechanism, which in this case is based on the company’s Ancile jammer. 

“Ancile can provide directional or omnidirectional jamming,” Stuart explained, adding that “directional provides a more effective defeat mechanism against a single drone. But omnidirectional is sometimes more important, it can defeat more drones within a given space.” This is because jamming relies on energy and, in a very simplified sense, noise. An RF jammer directs radio frequency energy at a drone, aiming to drown out the signals from its operator or ground control system. Generally speaking, a system can direct all of its jamming energy at a single drone, or disperse it over a wider area to provide omnidirectional jamming. 

The partnership with Metis, which was formed in late-2024, has led to Ancile being coupled to the Metis Skyperion RF detector. This is important because, “the Metis capability has a library that helps the defeat mechanism tailor its jamming approach…You want to be as disruptive to the drone as possible and not your own forces,” he said. Stuart explained that Ancile is programmable, allowing the jamming response to be tailored to the threat and its response staged. It could, for example, start by jamming the command link to the drone, which the operator uses to control it. Or, it could focus on the satellite navigation system, which tells the drone and operator where they are. “You could jam both, but most military systems use GPS for something, and jamming that is very disruptive,” Stuart added. 

Achieving this performance has required adaptation, however. “DJI drones are updated almost every year with more resilient and interference-free signals. A new DJI can now fly out to 10km, whereas the original ones were a few hundred metres. This makes it difficult even for the Russians to defeat,” Stuart explained. To address this, Allen Vanguard has expanded the frequencies that its jammers operate over. They now cover frequencies up to 18 GHz, which is the frequency used by satellite internet and the backhaul elements of a mobile phone network. 

Looking ahead as the company moves further towards becoming a specialised EW provider, the current partnering approach is set to continue. “Part of the plan at the moment is to partner with companies that have a strong EW pedigree.” Allen Vanguard is working on new radios and receivers, including its new radio frequency signal processor called NXT, which was unveiled at the IDEX 2025 exhibition. NXT is designed to provide a small RF processor that can fit within the confines of modern vehicles and improve the ability of the receiver to differentiate between noise and signals of interest. This is coupled with another product called Turmoil, which was delivered to a NATO country in April this year. 

Turmoil is an RF decoy, designed to be expendable. “It emulates certain types of radio and can be scheduled to appear as if it is a real comms net. It is built to interfere with an adversary’s SIGnals INTelligence (SIGINT) activities,” Stuart explained. As always, it is worth remembering why this type of capability is important. Russia places a primacy on electronic warfare and SIGINT. It would notionally use SIGINT in the opening phases of a crisis to try and understand the location and disposition of NATO forces. It even has allowances within its doctrine to call artillery missions down on a collection of signals. This is bad news for NATO command posts, which tend to be easily visible in the electromagnetic spectrum. There is work to improve this and reduce emissions, but with plans to increase connectivity between forces, it seems unlikely that emissions will be permanently reduced. So, having decoys could be a good option to improve the survivability of a force. 

With a range of partnerships bringing new capabilities and offerings, as well as its own internal R&D, represented by NXT, and two new jammers that are in the final stages of development, Allen Vanguard is well on the way to becoming an established EW house. But Stuart took time to emphasise the RCIED threat. “The threat is real, but it doesn’t get as much focus. It remains a consideration for police forces, the military and others around the world.” 

Canadian Forces Land EW Modernization

One part of Allen Vanguard’s current approach is to position the company to address a Canadian EW requirement. The Canadian armed forces are modernising their land EW under a significant project, which has in excess of CAD500 million (approx $362 million/€307 million) in funding allocated to it. Its aim is to “ improve the Canadian Armed Forces’ ability to monitor, manage and deliberately deny the use of the electromagnetic spectrum,” according to the Canadian MoD’s website. Speaking generally about emerging customer requirements, Stuart explained that “there is a demand for their ECM [Electronic Counter-Measure] systems to do everything; C-UAS, C-RCIED, and rudimentary SIGINT with data passed from the system back for central processing.”

This is coupled with a drive to make every software-defined radio (SDR) on the battlefield more useful. Most radios that are used for communications are now software defined, which means that they can, in theory, be used for EW.  “Collection is quite easy unlike direction finding or position fixing which need more capable antennas,” Stuart said. The idea is that SDRs could be used during preparation of the battlefield, allowing commanders to build an understanding of where the adversary is and in what numbers. “How do you process the data and make it meaningful?” Stuart suggested that this is somewhere that artificial intelligence can make a real difference to defence, providing an improved ability to analyse and understand the patterns in signals. Metis, the Allen Vanguard partner mentioned above, has actually developed a system for this purpose called THEIA. 

But the complications don’t stop there. This approach technically means that the SDR is “now SIGINT equipment and moving it around is now more difficult, and the information is now secret,” Stuart said. Adding, “it also raises questions around what you do with the vehicle if it gets disabled.” EW capabilities are typically highly classified, even discussing them or their existence can be difficult without a clearance and appropriate facilities. Technically, a disabled SIGINT vehicle would have to be destroyed rather than abandoned to prevent an adversary exploiting the intelligence that it holds. But, how would a force treat every vehicle if they were all technically SIGINT platforms to some extent? 

Calibre comment

EW is a capability that has been allowed to atrophy for much of NATO. Conventional capabilities have given way to small, specialised teams focused on SIGINT rather than electronic attack or the other capabilities that make up the field of electronic warfare. It is a growth area, especially with the growing threat of drones, but also because of the resurgence of peer-level threats, which demand that a force at least tries to dominate the electromagnetic spectrum. 

By Sam Cranny-Evans, published on September 22, 2025. Credit for the lead image is Allen Vanguard, it shows Bobby Strawbridge, the company president, with a range of the company’s capabilities.