Sensofusion in Iberia — Airfence counter-drone for Portugal and Spain

About Sensofusion

Sensofusion is a Finnish counter-unmanned-aircraft-system (C-UAS) specialist headquartered in Helsinki. The company is best known for Airfence, a passive radio-frequency detection platform that locates both the drone and the operator in real time. Sensofusion's systems are in service with government agencies across Europe, North America, the Middle East and Asia, in deployments that span airports, prisons, military bases and major-event perimeters.

The company has been operating in the counter-drone market long enough to have transitioned from "novel capability" to "deployed infrastructure." That distinction matters in procurement contexts where the buyer needs an installed-base reference rather than a roadmap. Sensofusion's acquisition of Atol Aviation extended the product family into air-to-ground detection — a useful capability for environments where the threat profile includes both small consumer drones and larger autonomous platforms.

For Iberian buyers, the relevant context is this: the European counter-drone market grew sharply in 2024–2026, driven first by the war in Ukraine and then by a series of high-profile airport incursions and critical-infrastructure incidents across the continent. Sweden's €230 million counter-drone procurement in 2026 is one signal among many. Portugal and Spain are not behind the curve in awareness — they are behind in deployment. The category is heating up locally, and Sensofusion is one of the few European platforms with a track record long enough to clear procurement-grade due diligence.

The Airfence system

Airfence is Sensofusion's flagship counter-drone product. It is a passive RF detection and direction-finding platform — meaning it does not emit, does not jam, and does not interfere with surrounding spectrum. It listens for the control signals between a drone and its operator, classifies the platform, and provides location data for both.

How Airfence works

The system uses distributed RF sensors that monitor the frequencies used by consumer and commercial drone protocols. When a signal is detected, the platform identifies the make and model through protocol signatures, locates the drone in three dimensions, and triangulates the operator's position on the ground. The output is fed into a unified command-and-control interface that integrates with existing security operations centres.

The detection-only architecture is important for the Iberian use case. Active jammers are heavily regulated in both Portugal and Spain — ANACOM in Portugal and the Ministerio de Asuntos Económicos in Spain both restrict RF transmission in commercial-aviation environments. Airfence's passive approach avoids that regulatory friction entirely. The system can be deployed at a civilian airport without a transmission licence, because nothing transmits.

What buyers should expect

Capability	What Airfence provides
Detection mode	Passive RF, no transmission
Coverage	Configurable per-site through distributed sensors
Targets	Consumer drones, commercial UAVs, modified platforms
Operator location	Triangulated in real time alongside drone position
Integration	API-level integration with SOC and airport security systems
Regulatory burden	Low — no transmission, no spectrum licence required
Reference deployments	Government agencies in Europe, North America, Middle East, Asia

Specifications above are summarised at NSHQ Defence's level of public disclosure. Full technical datasheets, integration scopes, and pricing tiers are available under NDA via direct introduction to Sensofusion.

The Iberian counter-drone market

The Iberian Peninsula has four distinct counter-drone procurement environments, each with its own budget cycle, decision-maker, and tolerance for foreign suppliers.

Portugal

Portuguese counter-drone procurement is fragmented across ANA Aeroportos (operating Lisbon, Porto, Faro and the Madeira and Azores airports under a Vinci-group concession), DGRSP (the prison services directorate, with documented exposure to drone-borne contraband), the Marinha Portuguesa (which commissioned the NRP D. João II drone-carrier in 2026), and the GNR (the national gendarmerie, responsible for border surveillance and critical-infrastructure protection).

Of these, ANA and DGRSP are the highest-probability near-term buyers. ANA operates inside the airport-security regulatory framework set by ANAC, and its 2024–2026 capital expenditure cycle has earmarked perimeter-security upgrades across the network. DGRSP has been documented in Portuguese parliamentary inquiries as a current victim of drone-delivered contraband — a procurement justification that is already on the record.

Spain

The Spanish landscape is shaped by AENA (operator of 46 airports in Spain including Madrid-Barajas, Barcelona-El Prat, Palma de Mallorca and Málaga), the Guardia Civil (with sweeping responsibility for border surveillance, including the Ceuta and Melilla land borders and the Atlantic and Mediterranean maritime borders), INTA (the national aerospace research institute, often a procurement vehicle for emerging defence capabilities), and Centro Nacional de Inteligencia (intelligence services).

AENA is the largest single airport operator in the world by passenger volume. Its counter-drone procurement is run through a centralised security directorate and follows Spanish public-procurement law — Plataforma de Contratación del Sector Público is the entry point. Foreign suppliers without a Spanish presence routinely lose at the procedural stage; this is the gap that an Iberian channel partner closes.

Critical infrastructure operators

Beyond armed-forces and police buyers, the Iberian counter-drone demand sits with energy operators (Galp, REN, EDP in Portugal; Repsol, Cepsa, Enagás, Iberdrola in Spain), port authorities (APDL, APSS in Portugal; Puerto de Algeciras, Puerto de Valencia in Spain), and event-security providers (UEFA matches, religious gatherings such as the World Youth Day events, NATO meetings hosted in Madrid and Lisbon).

Energy operators have the largest discretionary security budgets of this cohort. They are also the most exposed to drone-based threats — refinery overflights have been documented in both Spain and Portugal in 2024–2026.

Iberian use cases — airports, prisons, energy, events

Use case 1: ANA Aeroportos · Lisbon, Porto, Faro

The ANA portfolio handles roughly 65 million passengers per year. Lisbon Humberto Delgado airport sits inside the metropolitan area and has dense low-altitude airspace immediately to the north and east. Drone incursions at Lisbon are an existing operational concern; the airport already coordinates with ANAC and the Air Force on no-fly enforcement.

An Airfence deployment at Lisbon, Porto and Faro would provide ANA with passive detection across the three highest-traffic Portuguese airports, with the operator-location capability supporting law-enforcement handover to the PSP. The decision authority sits with ANA's security director, not with the Ministry of Defence — a critical procurement-cycle advantage.

Use case 2: AENA · Madrid, Barcelona, Palma, Málaga

AENA's centralised procurement model means a single contract can cover multiple airports. The Madrid–Barcelona–Palma–Málaga cluster represents the majority of Spanish passenger throughput. Airfence's distributed-sensor architecture maps cleanly onto a network deployment — sensors per airport, central command at AENA's Madrid SOC.

The procurement vehicle is the Plataforma de Contratación del Sector Público, with tender notices published in Spanish. NSHQ Defence monitors AENA tenders weekly and surfaces fits in the Nordic-Defence-Iberia Brief.

Use case 3: DGRSP · Portuguese prisons

Drone delivery of contraband into Portuguese prisons is documented in DGRSP's own annual reports and in Assembleia da República parliamentary questions from 2023, 2024 and 2025. The procurement justification is already public record. The challenge is not budget creation — it is platform selection.

An Airfence deployment at a small number of high-risk facilities (Lisbon, Porto, Coimbra, Faro) would establish the reference case. The contract size per facility is modest, but the procurement cadence is short and the political backing — given the parliamentary record — is high.

Use case 4: Energy and critical infrastructure

Galp's Sines refinery, Repsol's Tarragona and Cartagena complexes, REN's substation network in southern Portugal, and Iberdrola's nuclear assets at Almaraz, Ascó and Cofrentes all sit inside the same threat envelope: low-altitude drone overflight for surveillance, sabotage or symbolic disruption.

Energy-sector procurement is faster than defence-sector procurement because the budget owner is the operator, not the state. A typical refinery-perimeter Airfence deployment can move from initial conversation to signed PO in under six months — a cycle that no armed-forces procurement matches.

Use case 5: Major events and VIP protection

Iberia hosts a cadence of high-profile events that each trigger discrete counter-drone procurement: World Youth Day (Lisbon, 2023; recurring elsewhere), UEFA Champions League finals at the Estádio da Luz and Wanda Metropolitano, the NATO Madrid Summit (2022) and follow-on alliance gatherings, and head-of-state visits. Each event runs a procurement window of 60–180 days. Airfence's rapid-deployment configuration — temporary sensor masts, mobile SOC integration — fits this pattern.

Why a local channel matters in Iberia

Portuguese and Spanish defence and security procurement is not opaque, but it is structurally local. Three factors compound:

• Language. Tender documents are published in Portuguese (BASE.gov) and Spanish (Plataforma de Contratación). Iberian procurement officers are not obliged to evaluate English-language bids and rarely do. Anything not localised loses at the procedural stage.
• Procurement law and corporate presence. Public-procurement frameworks in both countries assume a registered local entity for invoicing, warranty, and post-sale service. A Helsinki-based supplier without a Portuguese or Spanish corporate footprint cannot complete an award without an intermediary — a distributor, integrator or channel partner.
• Relationships precede transactions. Iberian procurement officers expect a relationship to exist before the RFP. Foreign suppliers without local representation enter the market cold and consistently lose to incumbents with five-year visit histories.

This is what NSHQ Defence exists to close. We are the Iberian corporate footprint, the Portuguese and Spanish language layer, the relationship-management layer with procurement officers — without the manufacturer ceding the brand or the customer.

NSHQ Defence as Sensofusion's Iberian channel

NSHQ Defence is a Fractio AB initiative based in Gothenburg, with operational presence in Portugal and Spain. The model for Sensofusion specifically:

• Non-exclusive representation at first. We start without locking either party in. If the first year produces signed deals, exclusivity opens for renewal.
• 10–15% commission, no retainer. Sensofusion pays only on closed business. There is no upfront fee, no monthly retainer, no minimum-volume commitment.
• Direct introductions, not gatekeeping. NSHQ Defence introduces Sensofusion to ANA, AENA, DGRSP, Guardia Civil, GNR and energy buyers. The manufacturer remains the technical authority and the customer-facing brand.
• Local-language collateral. Portuguese and Spanish datasheets, tender response templates, and presentation packs are produced and maintained by NSHQ Defence at no incremental cost.
• Tender monitoring. Iberian tenders on BASE.gov, Plataforma de Contratación and TED Europa are monitored weekly. Sensofusion-relevant notices are forwarded with response timelines and competitive context.
• Trade-show presence. NSHQ Defence covers FEINDEF (Madrid) and the Portuguese idD events on Sensofusion's behalf where the manufacturer is not directly present.

The contract carrier is Fractio AB (Sweden, organisation number on file). Sensofusion contracts with Fractio AB; Fractio AB carries the Iberian commercial relationship. This keeps the manufacturer's legal entity uninvolved in Iberian VAT, Iberian employment, or Iberian local-presence requirements.

Regulation, export licensing and compliance

Counter-drone equipment falls under multiple regulatory frameworks. The relevant ones for a Finland-to-Iberia transaction:

• EU Dual-Use Regulation 2021/821. Sensofusion's RF detection products may fall under dual-use export controls depending on configuration. Sensofusion handles the Finnish export-licence workflow; NSHQ Defence ensures the Iberian end-user documentation supports the licence application.
• Finnish defence-materiel licensing. Sensofusion's Finnish operations are licensed under the Finnish Ministry of Defence and the Defence Forces Logistics Command framework.
• Portuguese receiving-side compliance. Portuguese armed-forces and security-agency procurement runs through Direção-Geral de Recursos da Defesa Nacional (DGRDN) and idD Portugal Defence. End-user certificates are issued by these bodies.
• Spanish receiving-side compliance. Spanish equivalent compliance runs through the Dirección General de Armamento y Material (DGAM) within the Ministerio de Defensa, with INTA acting as a procurement vehicle for emerging capabilities.
• Spectrum and aviation compliance. Because Airfence is passive, no transmission licence from ANACOM (Portugal) or Cuerpo Superior de Vigilancia Aduanera spectrum body (Spain) is required. The system is compatible with civilian-airport operating regulations under EASA.

NSHQ Defence does not handle export-controlled items directly. All transactions are conducted by the manufacturer under the manufacturer's national export-licensing regime. Operations comply with EU Dual-Use Regulation 2021/821 and, where applicable, Inspektionen för strategiska produkter (ISP) requirements in Sweden.

Frequently asked questions

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