Silentium Defense, a maker of surveillance radars, opened its U.S. headquarters in Apex Tuesday as the company grows its business with U.S. defense customers.
The company — whose stealth radars track objects across land, sea, air and space — has 10 employees now and expects to grow to 50 by next year at the offices near where U.S. 1 and N.C. 55 meet in southwest Wake County, becoming one of the latest companies to join North Carolina’s growing defense and aerospace sector.
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The company makes mobile radar devices that can track objects such as airplanes or drones, but which don’t emit signals of their own. That allows their users to stay hidden — able to use radar without revealing their own position. That will be critical as the future of warfare turns more toward drones like the ongoing wars in Ukraine and Iran have shown, said U.S. Rep. Pat Harrigan, a North Carolina Republican who attended the ribbon-cutting Tuesday.
Harrigan served in the U.S. Army special forces, leading fellow Green Berets in Afghanistan. Tactics they used less than 20 years ago in Afghanistan are already outdated due to rapid improvements in drone technology, he said. Being able to evade and counter drones will keep U.S. soldiers alive in future conflicts, he said, which will help politicians like him continue advocating for the American military’s role in the world.
“The threshold for America, and Americans, to accept sending their men and women into conflict is pretty low,” Harrigan said in an interview. “And so, when you have a technology that actually allows you to see without being seen — to know what your adversary is doing without them knowing what you are doing — you actually increase the political viability of our ability to exert force around the globe. Which is something that is absolutely critical, not just to our nation's defense, but to the entire apparatus of how politics works around the globe.”
Over the past two years, Silentium has secured multiple U.S. contracts to supply its products. The systems are designed to operate independently or integrate with existing systems to improve awareness of threats and targets.
Executives said they were attracted to the Triangle due to its proximity to highly skilled technical talent. It’s also not far from Fort Bragg, home to the 82nd Airborne, the Joint Special Operations Command and other units from the military and intelligence communities.
“Our passive radar technology helps resolve some of the most complex sensing challenges in modern defense, and establishing a permanent presence in Apex gives us the foundation to work more closely with our U.S. customers, partners, and the broader allied defense community,” James Palmer, Silentium’s global chief executive, said in a statement.
In a speech Tuesday, he added: “We're really committed to seeing that this enterprise that we've got here in the U.S. will scale quickly” as the U.S. and its allies grapple with “the changing nature of warfare and the emergence and scale of drones in modern conflicts.”
The company also announced plans for a $1,500 scholarship program for two graduating Wake County high school seniors who are pursuing degrees focused on science, technology or mathematics fields.
The opening comes a couple weeks after Skyeton Inc., a manufacturer of unmanned aerial systems, said it would create 162 jobs in Cumberland County. The company plans to invest more than $3.1 million in Fayetteville to establish its first flagship manufacturing operation in the U.S., state officials said
“North Carolina continues to rise to the top ranks as the best place to do business, especially in the aerospace and defense sectors,” Gov. Josh Stein said in a statement announcing the Skyeton investment.
North Carolina officials have been working to beef up the state’s defense and aerospace sector. Last month, Stein and the state Department of Commerce announced the launch of an advisory group focused on strengthening North Carolina’s position in defense research, innovation, advanced manufacturing and technology commercialization.
“North Carolina ranks in the bottom half of all states in total defense-related economic activity and R&D spending but has the resources, including our skilled hightech businesses and workforce, higher education systems, critical minerals, advanced materials, and military presence to maximize the unique opportunity for increased defense-related investment present in creating high-valued jobs and businesses in the aerospace and defense tech sectors,” state officials said in their updated strategic economic development plan.