Terra Industries, an African defense technology company, announced plans to open offices in London and San Francisco. The expansion aims to bring the company's autonomous drone and counter-drone systems to governments in South Asia and South America.

Maxwell Maduka, co-founder and chief engineer of Terra Industries, stated that the company designs its systems for surveillance, perimeter monitoring, search and rescue, environmental analysis, and agricultural uses. "The big four for us are heat, dust, humidity, and topography, which affect different parts of the system," Maduka said. He noted that the company utilizes a software stack named ArtemisOS and maintains a human-in-the-loop policy for its systems. "Our own software stack (ArtemisOS) keeps autonomy and data under the operator's control," he said. "Its specifications and communications are tuned for Africa, and we have a strict human-in-the-loop policy."

Maduka addressed the challenges of operating in regions facing transnational terrorism, insurgency, border insecurity, illegal extraction, and threats to critical infrastructure. "As we've done with Africa, we plan to serve governments in South Asia and South America, which also face transnational terrorism, insurgency, border insecurity, illegal extraction, and threats to critical infrastructure," he said. He contrasted this with imported equipment, stating, "Imported Turkish and Chinese drones are cheap and fly fine, but they are difficult to sustain locally, and do not guarantee sovereignty over software and data."

Terra Industries produces the Minesweeper, a mine-detecting unmanned ground vehicle. "Our Minesweeper, a mine-detecting unmanned ground vehicle, protects against improvised explosive devices and unexploded explosive ordnance," Maduka said. He added that the counter-unmanned aerial system mission is also important. "But we have a firm principle that every armed effect in our systems needs positive authorization from a human operator," he said. "We don't and won't build autonomous lethality: Nothing in our engineering or documentation stack allows a system to decide to engage on its own."

The offices in San Francisco and London will provide access to engineering talent and capital networks, according to Maduka. "Our offices in San Francisco and London will allow us to access engineering talent and capital networks needed to scale the company's technology and accelerate deployments across these markets," he said. Maduka stated that the company's goal is to become the defense prime for the Global South. "We'd like to become the defense prime for the Global South," he said.