Silentium Defence

Silentium Defence designs and deploys passive radar systems for covert surveillance from the surface to space. Co-founded in 2017 in South Australia by Dr James Palmer, who serves as global chief executive, and Simon Palumbo, now executive vice president of its United States operations, the company has grown from an Australian start-up into a supplier to the United States and other allied nations. Passive radar uses existing ambient signals rather than transmitting, so operators can detect and track threats without revealing their own position and without a spectrum licence. The company serves defence, government and commercial customers across Australia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, South America and North America, with regional chief executives for North America and for the United Kingdom and Europe.

Products

• MAVERICK M8: a covert, lightweight passive radar for near 360 degree threat detection across land, sea and air, with low size, weight and power, backpack-to-operational in under 10 minutes, built-in mission planning and performance prediction, and operation standalone or within an integrated sensor suite
• MAVERICK Excalibur: a relocatable, vehicle-portable 3D passive radar for air and surface surveillance with low power requirements
• OMNIGUARD: an ultra-wide field-of-view staring sensor for low-latency, 24/7 surveillance of resident space objects in low Earth orbit, available in cued and uncued modes and operating in all weather
• MAPIT and MERLIN mission planning tools that use modelling, simulation and live data to test strategies and optimise radar placement
• SpaceWatch surveillance data feeds for space domain awareness

Missions

Silentium's mission areas include counter-UAS, where it addresses small, fast and increasingly autonomous first-person-view and one-way attack drones, integrated air and missile defence, tactical surveillance, predictive planning and space domain awareness in an increasingly crowded and contested low Earth orbit. In 2026 the company announced a partnership with Saab Australia.

Shows

Silentium Defence appears in the exhibitor lists of the AUSA Annual Meeting and Exposition 2026, DSEI UK 2027 and MSPO International Defence Industry Exhibition 2027.

Contact

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