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Our team

Policing experience. Aviation hours. Professionals you can trust.

AerDefence brings together decades of experience in policing, aviation and commercial drone operations. Our team includes a former member of the Garda Air Support Unit who helped lead An Garda Síochána’s drone evaluation project, alongside commercial drone operators with 14 years of flight planning, event control and regulatory experience. We know how drones are flown, how they are misused and what the law allows. That understanding shapes everything we do, from the first conversation about your site to the detection data we deliver.

John Finnegan
Drone security advisory

John Finnegan

John Finnegan served with An Garda Síochána from 1995, including 20 years with the Garda Air Support Unit operating fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft. He was part of the team that led the Garda UAS evaluation project, assessing the use of drones in policing and helping develop the Garda drone training course and manual. During his Garda career, John supported major security operations involving crewed and uncrewed aviation, including the visits of Presidents Obama, Trump and Biden, the 2011 State Visit of Queen Elizabeth II, Ireland’s EU Council Presidencies in 2004 and 2013, and the Creeslough emergency response. At AerDefence he advises clients on drone security from first contact, drawing on his policing and aviation experience.

Rob O’Connor
Technology

Rob O’Connor

Rob O’Connor leads technology development at AerDefence. He built the AerDefence platform, integrating passive detection sensors with the operations console and the AerTracker mobile app, so each detection is tracked live and checked against IAA airspace data. Rob has 14 years of commercial drone experience with Aerial.ie and is a committee member of Drone Professionals Ireland. His working knowledge of Irish and EU drone regulation, including Remote ID and geozones, shapes how the system identifies, records and reports drone activity.

Tony Kinlan
Flight planning, operations and client engagement

Tony Kinlan

Tony Kinlan has 14 years of experience in commercial drone operations with Aerial.ie. He specialises in flight planning and event control, coordinating drone operations at large public events with event control teams. Tony managed the SORA process for Aerial.ie, applying the EASA Specific Operations Risk Assessment methodology to secure an operational authorisation from the IAA. He has long managed Aerial.ie’s client relationships and sales, working with clients from first enquiry through to delivery. He is a member of the Unmanned Aircraft Association of Ireland (UAAI).

AerDefence operating a drone from a marked support van at night.

Contact Us In Confidence

Enquiries are read by the AerDefence operations desk in Dublin. We reply within one working day, from a named person.

  • Email
    info@aerdefence.ie
  • Phone
    +353 1908 18 27
  • Based
    Dublin, Ireland · nationwide deployments
  • Response
    Within 1 business day