Cameron, great to see you as always. Thanks for being with us.
Thank you for having me. Always a pleasure.
Absolutely, Cameron. For more than 20 years, Draganfly, a trusted name in hardware, software, sensors, and services for unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs. For viewers new to the story, Cameron, what is Draganfly?
Draganfly is a drone solution provider. We are the longest-standing commercial manufacturer of drones in the world. We commercialized the quadcopter. We put the first thermal cameras on quadcopters. First drone that was ever credited with saving a human life, which sits on permanent display in the Smithsonian, is a Draganfly drone. We have a long-standing history working for public safety, military contractors, long-form infrastructure, things like pipelines and power lines. We're really the trusted name, in my opinion anyway, in the drone industry, and very, very well positioned for what is now unfolding into this multi-billion-dollar industry.
Cam, earlier this month, Draganfly announced record revenue for the nine months ending September 30, 2022. Give us the highlights.
Yeah, so, you know, we've been a small company for the last 20+ years, which is why we're the longest-running company out there. There's been lots of very well-funded, high-profile drone companies that have started in North America and Europe, and for the most part, they've all gone out of business. And the reason is that they were prematurely scaling into a market that, frankly, we just didn't see developing up until about two years ago, where the FAA regulations started to become very, very clear on how drones would be used within our infrastructure, in particular, flying beyond visual line of sight. That, and now combined with the unfortunate conflict in Ukraine, has dramatically highlighted and expanded the entire drone market globally. And what this means for Draganfly is simply keeping up.
Our record revenues are really a reflection just of us trying to do what we can for our customers while we are building out our capacity to keep up with these bigger orders that are continuing to come in.
A highlight of Draganfly's third quarter was its unveiling of its next generation UAV platforms at the Commercial UAV Expo in Las Vegas. These include the Commander 3 XL drone and the Draganfly Heavy Lift Drone. Tell us more about these, Cam, as well as Draganfly's Long Range LiDAR system, also unveiled at the expo. Are users stepping up to buy?
It's, it's really a fun time, to be in this space, and actually a fun time, for us, in particular, at this point in the business. So the, the first couple of years, ago, when we started to really scale the business, you know, the number one issue was: What are the customers gonna want? And the, the big advantage that we have as an organization is that we've got 24 years, and we've got hundreds of customers, and so we were able to know or understand from customer demand what was going to be needed in these coming years, rather than trying to guess or hope or coming up with something that's cool and going out and getting a signature customer, and, you know, where a lot of our competitors, are positioned today. And where we're at is, you know, we've got that feedback.
You know, we spent a year and a bit putting these new product lines together and then unveiled them in Q3 of last year. And you know, there's no way we're gonna be able to keep up with capacity over the next couple of years. The waiting lists are long, the deposits are in, and we've answered the call. We have developed a number of products, in particular, the Commander 3 XL, which is, in my opinion, the most efficient drone in the market today. That's a 24 lbs drone that can also carry 26 lbs of payload for about 50 minutes. You can put everything from LiDAR systems to thermal systems to mine detection systems to you name it. It's being referred to as the Swiss Army knife of the drone industry.
And so, our back orders on that thing are already just outstanding. We've got a heavy-lift drone that's nine feet across and carries 70 lbs of payload. Great for logistics work, great for light military, great for, you know, delivery services. And we've got a LiDAR system. And why is LiDAR so important? Well, LiDAR is a huge, huge part of the mapping and the survey business. And just like a couple of years ago, where there was a concern around, you know, foreign manufacturer drones and the data that they collect, because nothing collects better data better than a drone, we now see that sentiment and a big push within the regulators and the markets to move to North American-made sensors, and the biggest of which we have demand around is the LiDAR system.
And so our LiDAR system, typically, this is a LiDAR system that previously had to be carried on a helicopter, so a massive platform, thousands of dollars an hour to operate, can now be operated even on our 3 XL drone or certainly our heavy-lift drone for any, in the order of magnitude of hundreds of dollars per hour. So all of these products, again, are born out of customer demand, and we've got the luxury now of just keeping up.
Cam, recently, news came out that Draganfly had fulfilled an order of 30 reconnaissance drones for Ukraine. Can you tell us more about that?
Yeah, so we have a long-standing history of working with public safety, light military work. We're doing contract work for military contractors. And so, these 30 reconnaissance drones were born out of work that we'd already been doing in Ukraine around humanitarian services, like delivery of medical supplies and pharmaceuticals, as well as using our technology in mine detection. So these 30 reconnaissance drones are being deployed into theater and, we believe are the front end of, potentially or hopefully many more orders to come with the various groups that, we're working with there. Ukraine really is an incredible advent for the drone industry. It's unfortunate that it's happening, but it has completely redefined what air dominance means in military theater. So previously, only very large organizations, countries, could-...
attain air dominance, and really air dominance is the key factor to whether a particular situation was gonna be successful or not. Now, from 10,000 ft down, pretty much anybody that can manage these lower-cost UAV systems, these smaller UAV systems, can accomplish air dominance. And so for organizations like us at Draganfly, who have, you know, a decade or, you know, a quarter of a century of experience working with these types of organizations, it really, the technology that we're developing, it comes out of our experience, but also experience in the field operating these, has been paramount. And we're going to see the drone industry completely excel over the next couple of years.
In fact, I would suggest that if you're a drone organization that's looking to operate internationally, or with DoDs or public safety organizations, if you haven't been able to demonstrate an effective presence in Ukraine, you know, you're probably not gonna be a real player going forward. Now, because there's so few of us there that are able to do that, it really is also helping define the market for those particular drone companies, like us, over the coming years.
I think it is commendable how you have gone in and made the most out of a very unfortunate situation. You're showing the way forward. It's extremely exciting. And finally, Cam, what is the essential value proposition? Why should investors take an interest in Draganfly right now?
I think there's three particular things. First of all, there's... And not in a particular order, they're all equally important, but there's our technology. You know, we have been developing technology for, you know, 25+ years. The drone industry is very complex. It's not just about putting an airframe up with some blades on it and being able to put something up in the air. You've got spoofing, you've got jamming, you've got regulation, you've got training, you've got payload management, you've got data management. You, you're handling the most important information that a company or a customer or a government has when you're operating those drones. So the longstanding technology development track record that we have, our patent portfolio, et cetera, I think is extremely important. The second thing is traction.
You know, we've demonstrated, you know, quarter-over-quarter growth, record growth year after year. We're at the very, very beginning of this industry, and there's a very few players that are able, you know, from a technical and operational standpoint, to actually follow through on all the promise of this industry. So the traction that we're getting, I think, is really important. And then finally, it's our team. We have an experienced management team that collectively has grown multiple companies, from microcap companies to billion-dollar exits for our shareholders. And if you look at our board, we've got people like John Mitnick, the former GC of all of Homeland Security, and a GC at Raytheon. We've got Andy Card, who's the former Chief of Staff of the White House.
We've got people and access that are representative of the opportunity that's in front of us, and I think hopefully representative of the great shareholders that we're able to attract.
It's an exciting story, Cameron, and you always do it justice. Thanks for being with us today.
Thank you.