Brinc launches Guardian drone to replace police helicopters

On Tuesday, public safety drone developer Brinc launched the Guardian, a new drone that the company asserts is the world’s most capable 911 response drone. Blake Resnick, the founder of Brinc and a former Thiel fellow—a prestigious program that funds young entrepreneurs to skip or defer college—described the Guardian as “the closest thing to a police helicopter replacement that the drone industry has ever produced.” Founded in 2017, Brinc secured early seed investment from OpenAI founder Sam Altman and was valued at nearly half a billion dollars as of its last funding round. Resnick is currently establishing the company’s operations in a new 50,000-square-foot office facility in Seattle, which is expected to be fully set up potentially November.

The Guardian is designed to operate autonomously from a rooftop landing station, which Brinc calls a charging nest. The system features several technical specifications:

• A 62-minute flight time
• Flight speeds of up to 60 mph
• An integrated Starlink satellite internet panel built directly into its body

According to Resnick, the integration of Starlink—which has not previously been built into a commercially produced quadcopter—gives the drone unlimited range anywhere in the world. The drone also features thermal imaging, two 4K cameras with zoom capabilities, a spotlight, and a loudspeaker. The automated charging nest can also be stocked with emergency medical supplies like defibrillators, flotation devices, and Narcan.

Brinc is positioning the Guardian to capture a public safety market in the U.S. and globally. There are about 20,000 police departments, 30,000 fire departments, and 80,000 police and fire stations in America. Resnick stated that the company thinks the top half of this public safety market will have a 911 response drone in a recharging nest on the roof, adding that the market opportunity appears to be between $6 billion and $8 billion. To accelerate adoption, Brinc has partnered with the National League of Cities to scale “drone as first responder” programs—a program model for using drones in emergency response—across U.S. communities. This expansion comes as U.S. public safety agencies seek domestic alternatives following federal actions that banned foreign-made drone models from entering the country, which previously affected products from Chinese competitor DJI.

Why it matters

Brinc is positioning its new Guardian drone as a direct replacement for police helicopters, aiming to capture a significant portion of the public safety market while capitalizing on the U.S. ban of foreign-made drones.