London SME Vizgard has grown from five employees to twenty since engaging with UK Defence Innovation, its FortifAI visual AI system now processing more than 100 camera streams simultaneously to support police drone operations, coastal security and wider defence missions.
Vizgard, founded by former Royal Navy submariner Alex Kehoe, has spent five years developing FortifAI, a real-time visual AI platform that plugs into existing defence and security camera infrastructure across land, air and sea. With funding from UK Defence Innovation (UKDI) and technical input from the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), the company has taken the platform from handling a single camera stream to more than 100 concurrent streams today.
The system addresses a growing operational problem: as drone use across policing and defence expands, so does the volume of visual and sensor data operators must monitor, both to run missions efficiently and to spot adversary threats. FortifAI tackles this with three components: onboard AI that helps police drones avoid obstacles, a low-power computer at the camera site that keeps data secure without needing an internet connection, and ground-based steerable cameras that scan the sky and investigate reports flagged by radar and radio-frequency sensors.
The step change came through UKDI’s Security Open Call, which funded the re-architecture of the platform into FortifAI 2.0. “We had to completely re-architect the software,” said Alex Kehoe, CEO of Vizgard. “Early on, FortifAI could only handle one camera stream for one drone. For this project, we needed to process multiple streams simultaneously. It was a significant undertaking, but UKDI funding gave us the runway to do it properly.”
That capability builds on Vizgard’s first commercial contract, secured through UKDI in 2021, which saw its AI fuse radio tracks with visual detection during sea trials on the Royal Navy’s uncrewed test submarine, tracking fast-moving vessels and identifying those masking their identity. “This early validation opened doors for us with primes working in coastal security,” Kehoe said. UK Policing is now exploring FortifAI for drone and counter-drone operations, with the platform designed to flag when and where an operator’s attention is needed amid a flood of live sensor data.
Vizgard’s momentum has continued to build. The company secured £1.5 million in venture capital funding in early 2025 to develop UnifAI, a machine-learning operations platform that cuts model refinement time in the field from weeks to days. It is now exporting its technology through a US Defense Innovation Unit contract for field testing with the US Marines, and has won a place in NATO DIANA’s 2026 cohort from more than 3,500 applicants. UKDI support has also led Vizgard into a further project with Dstl on edge-based AI to help quadcopter drones identify unexploded mines during automated surveillance missions.
For the UK Defence Supply Chain
Vizgard’s trajectory, from a five-person SME to a 20-strong supplier working across UK policing, the Royal Navy, Dstl and NATO’s innovation accelerator, illustrates the kind of scaling UKDI funding is designed to produce, and points to sustained demand for edge AI, sensor fusion and autonomous-systems capability across land, air and maritime domains. Suppliers active in machine learning, computer vision, low-power edge computing and counter-drone/counter-UAS systems stand to benefit, particularly those able to integrate with existing camera and radar infrastructure rather than requiring wholesale replacement. Track record with UKDI or Dstl-funded trials, and evidence of moving technology from single-use prototype to production-grade, multi-stream deployment, will matter more to buyers than paper capability alone. The pipeline reflects the MOD’s wider drive to build sovereign autonomous and counter-drone capability at pace, working with agile SMEs rather than solely through established primes.
