Blighter combines radar hardware with licensable integration software and regional partners. Public accounts reveal a smaller company behind its international customer references.
Blighter Surveillance Systems supplies radar hardware and the software that connects it to larger surveillance systems. Its market role extends across borders, coastlines, infrastructure and counter-drone applications. For a commercial reader, the useful distinction is between the radar company itself and the wider systems assembled by its customers, distributors and integration partners.
That distinction runs through its recent public record. Blighter has announced new European orders, a Korean reseller agreement and an additional software module. Its filed accounts show a company with an average workforce of 32 people during its 2025 financial year, operating through a wider industrial and support network.
Companies House identifies Blighter Surveillance Systems Limited as private company 09826773, incorporated on 15 October 2015. Its registered address and published business location are at Great Chesterford, near Cambridge.
The active persons with significant control register names Colin Richard Smithers and Ian Andrew Murphy. Each is recorded as owning more than 25% and no more than 50% of shares and voting rights. Timothy Jackson's entry records cessation on 24 July 2024. These are ownership bands, rather than a complete shareholder breakdown.
Blighter describes an internal engineering team covering electronics, mechanical design, embedded firmware and software. It also says its radars are assembled and tested by UK product assembly partners. That is a more precise industrial description than assuming the company directly employs every person involved in producing and supporting its systems.
The company-only accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025 contain several useful figures:
| Measure | Published figure | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Turnover | £7,658,000 | Directors' report, rounded |
| Previous turnover | £2,189,000 | Comparable prior year |
| Average monthly employees | 32 | Including directors |
| Previous average employees | 28 | Comparable prior year |
The filing is unaudited and omits the income statement. The directors nevertheless disclose turnover and a rounded £1.632 million profit before tax in their report. They attribute revenue growth to stronger Middle Eastern demand. The balance sheet still records net liabilities of £619,076, so the improvement in trading should be read alongside the accumulated financial position.
In a separate 13 May 2025 company release, Blighter described a £25 million order book and orders exceeding that amount over the preceding 12 months. The release does not reconcile those descriptions to recognised annual sales. It is evidence of the company's reported ordering activity, not a substitute revenue figure.
For a potential partner, the combination points towards a business where delivery timing and repeat programmes can substantially affect annual results. An annual average workforce also cannot establish how many engineers are available for a new integration project today.
Blighter presents several related hardware families. The B400 series addresses ground surveillance, while the C400 series focuses on coastal environments. The A400 is presented around aerial threat detection, and the A800 Mk 2 combines multiple surveillance roles.
These categories help organise an initial supplier comparison without turning a company profile into a catalogue of tactical specifications. A port operator, infrastructure integrator and defence customer may be considering related technology but have different acceptance processes, service arrangements and existing software environments.
A shared manufacturer can offer continuity across those projects. However, common branding does not make every model interchangeable or mean a reference for one product validates another. The relevant public evidence should connect the specific family, customer setting and delivery stage.
The company's description of UK assembly partners also affects how its scale should be interpreted. A 32-person annual average is not a count of the entire production ecosystem. Conversely, access to outside assembly capacity does not establish unlimited output. The commercial task is to identify where design changes, production quality and customer support are owned across those organisations.
That division can matter when a customer wants a repeat purchase years after the initial installation. The relationship may require the original hardware design, a current software release and an available assembly partner to remain aligned. Public employee figures cannot resolve that continuity question by themselves.
The BlighterNexus Hub is the company's connectivity and processing layer for linking radars with other sensors, operator interfaces and larger command systems. Its HMI product provides the operator-facing interface and system health information.
On 3 December 2025, Blighter announced Nexus Track, describing it as one of around 30 licensable modules in its software environment. The same announcement discusses connectors for other sensors and the option to pass information to an external analytics system.
Commercially, this means the scope can extend beyond the purchase of radar units. Software licensing, integration effort and continuing support may be separate parts of the relationship. A systems integrator would need to understand which functions remain within Nexus and which sit in the customer's broader application.
BDI's SAPIENT interface guide explains the wider importance of defined interfaces in counter-drone procurement. It provides comparison context; it does not establish that every Blighter product has any particular certification or interface implementation.
Blighter's 14 May 2026 announcement describes an exclusive value-added reseller agreement with JoongAng Advanced Materials. The stated work includes support and maintenance of existing Korean military installations, alongside efforts to develop further regional business and combine the companies' software capabilities.
This is a specific route-to-market arrangement rather than an acquisition. The announcement places local support, customer relationships and additional integration capability with a regional partner. Its ambitions for further sales remain prospective.
The arrangement is commercially significant because support of an installed base and pursuit of new projects are connected but different activities. A distributor with an existing maintenance role can learn customer requirements and provide continuity. Whether that produces larger orders depends on subsequent buying decisions, which the agreement alone does not quantify.
An older, named reference appears in Chess Dynamics' April 2019 account of its Gatwick work. Chess described the AUDS system as a partnership involving itself, Enterprise Control Systems and Blighter. That supports Blighter's historical role within a combined system; it should not be read as a statement of Gatwick's complete September 2026 supplier configuration.
Recent announcements provide a different kind of evidence:
| Announcement date | Publicly described development | Commercial stage |
|---|---|---|
| 9 March 2026 | B400 radars and Nexus for an undisclosed Eastern European army | Company-reported contract |
| 4 June 2026 | A800 Mk 2 and software for an undisclosed Eastern European army | Company-reported follow-on contract |
The March and June releases describe hardware and software together. Neither provides a contract value or identifies the buyer publicly. Their strongest commercial signal is repeat ordering and a broader product relationship, with the supplier remaining the source of that account.
Blighter's combination of named radar families, its own software and regional partners makes it relevant to integrators building larger surveillance services. The company's public examples also suggest that product sales, software support and localisation can coexist within the same customer relationship.
A comparison with OpenWorks Engineering is useful for understanding different specialist roles within counter-drone systems, rather than ranking all suppliers as direct substitutes. Blighter's distinguishing business questions concern responsibility for the radar and processing layer, the durability of its support network, and how reported orders convert into delivered systems and annual sales.
Public company product and news bodies and official control register were read. FY2025 company-only accounts were obtained via ordinary unauthenticated Companies House HTTP 200 and inspected visually: printed pages 1,4,5,7,11. Revenue is the directors' rounded turnover disclosure, not an audited income statement; average employees are company-only. Chess Dynamics' dated 2019 primary article text was readable in public search output, while direct web and ordinary HTTP returned 403; it supports only the historical AUDS relationship stated. Recent unnamed customer announcements are attributed to Blighter, not independently identified or valued.
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