Sentinel Photonics secures investment from Galvion

The British company Sentinel Photonics has secured investment from Galvion, building on an earlier round led by FNX Ventures. The capital is intended to facilitate the integration of Sentinel’s laser warning products into soldier systems.

By Sam Cranny-Evans, editor of Calibre Defence, published on May 6, 2026.

Galvion has invested further funds in Sentinel Photonics, the British company specialising in laser detection and protection technology. According to a May 6 press release, the investment is to help “accelerate the deployment of advanced laser detection and protection technologies to allied forces.”

It builds upon an earlier investment in Sentinel Photonics, which was led by FNX Ventures, the investment arm of FN Browning. FNX partnered with Galvion for that round too. However, FNX acquired a minority stake in Sentinel.

The new investment will continue that product development as well as supporting integration into soldier systems, the press release states.

“With Sentinel, we can give frontline operators earlier warning of hostile laser activity, protecting them and their equipment while maintaining mission effectiveness,” Jonathan Blanshay, Executive Chairman at Galvion said.

Sentinel Photonics was spun out of DSTL, the UK MoD’s defence research arm. In 2025, the company had a team of 20 and two products – FROST and MICRO – actively deployed. Its product suite has grown since. The company now has systems designed to detect multiple types of lasers, improving the situational awareness of deployed forces.

Its initial developments were focused on the individual soldier, so the partnership with Galvion makes a lot of sense as the two companies work on similar problems.

Calibre comment: Dismounted situational awareness

Dismounted situational awareness is used to refer to soldiers after they have dismounted from a vehicle. It refers to their ability to interpret and understand what is happening around them. For a lot of forces, this happens in a single chunk of the electromagnetic spectrum (EMS); visible light. However, many are calling for a world in which the dismounted soldier can receive data from different parts of the EMS.

This might mean radio frequency systems like the FPV detectors used in Ukraine, or the laser detectors produced by Sentinel Photonics. Integrating those systems onto the soldier is key as they tend to be quite heavily equipped and weighed down already. Galvion, however, specialises in helmet systems amongst other things and has a long history of working with users to develop solutions that are minimally invasive. Consequently, the partnership could help bring laser detectors, which are likely an important tool for dismounted infantry, into service much quicker.

If you’d like to learn more about Galvion or Sentinel Photonics, check out the links below:

The lead image shows a covert operator with Sentinel Photonics products. Credit: Sentinel Photonics.