Areté

Areté is an advanced science and engineering company. It provides innovative solutions from scientific discovery through production. The company was founded in 1976 by five scientists, and it says it works from seafloor to space.

The company was founded to solve a Department of Defense challenge: detecting weak signals in heavy ocean clutter. Its founders used first principles thinking to tackle it. Its engineers modeled sea waves, whitecaps and surf, and that water modeling has been licensed for films such as Titanic.

Its smart systems include active and passive sensors, real time processing, software and complex algorithms. Its work supports the US Navy, US Army, US Air Force, US Marine Corps, the Missile Defense Agency, the intelligence community, the US Department of Energy and commercial energy exploration companies.

In space, the company works on sensing from, or to, space. In air, its airborne lidar helps helicopters operate in dust storms, bad weather and other visually degraded conditions. On land, its work helps forces detect chemical and biological agents remotely. At sea, it has over 40 years of experience in maritime domain sensing for military and commercial uses.

Undersea, its technologies detect mines and other threats through dense clutter such as whitecaps and surf. In aerospace, it detects weak signals in clouds, rain and fog, with low false alarm rates.

Its products include targeting lasers, lidar products, UV lasers and custom lasers. LiSA is a lidar for situational awareness. Basilisk is a counter-UAS system, and the site also lists STRIDR, PILLS, Wallace, PRIMER and Art.

The headquarters is in Northridge, California. Offices are in Falls Church, Virginia; Huntsville, Alabama; Niwot, Colorado; Tucson, Arizona; Niceville, Florida; and Healdsburg, California. Recent events include the Space and Missile Defense Symposium 2026 and Project Flytrap 5.0, a counter-drone demonstration.

Services

• Targeting lasers
• Lidar
• UV lasers
• Custom lasers
• LiSA lidar
• Counter-UAS (Basilisk)
• Maritime surveillance
• Space systems
• Force protection
• Sensing software