In 2015 METIS secured a development contract with funding provided by the UK Regional Growth Fund (RGF) Programme for a challenge set by the National Police Aviation Service. The RGF Programme was managed by the UK North West Aerospace Alliance under the Growing Autonomous Mission Management Applications (GAMMA) banner. Partnering with a small consortium of specialists, the proposal was to demonstrate a drone-borne, autonomous, RF signal detection and geolocation capability (with HYPERION as the sensor). The programme would culminate in METIS integrating HYPERION onto a modified DJI S1000 Octacopter.
The project was 12 months in length and METIS successfully delivered and demonstrated the capability, on time and under budget.