The future of air support is here.

About Aerodome

Our Journey

The origin of DFR

Fritz Reber, current Vice President at Aerodome and former Captain at the Chula Vista Police Department, established the world's first Drone-as-First-Responder (DFR) program in 2017. The program aimed to increase officer and community safety, enhance patrol efficiencies, and improve response times. The program became a world-renowned success.

DFR takes off

In 2020, Aerodome Co-founder & CEO Rahul Sidhu launched the nation's second DFR program in Redondo Beach, CA. Inspired by Fritz Reber's pioneering work and motivated by the strain COVID-19 placed on patrol resources, this program has been in continuous operation since inception. Besides working as a reserve (former full-time) police officer and paramedic, Rahul was the Co-founder & CEO of SPIDR Tech, an automated public safety software company that was successfully acquired in 2021.

Why DFR?

Safety and quality of life for communities depend on efficient and effective emergency response. Unfortunately, public safety resources are limited, and response times to calls for service have increased across the country. DFR programs enable public safety agencies to respond faster, deploy resources more intelligently, de-escalate situations, and ultimately keep communities and first responders safer. Public safety executives worldwide increasingly recognize DFR as the future of air support.

The future becomes clear

Rahul recognized that DFR 1.0 programs would be limited to a few public safety agencies with the necessary resources. DFR 1.0 required rooftop observers and drone pilots, needing two humans per drone, making scaling difficult. DFR 2.0 combines automated drone stations with ground-based sensors like radar, allowing a single pilot to operate multiple drones without additional observers. This fully automated, remote approach enables one operator to manage multiple drones.

The team came together

Rahul approached Aerodome co-founder and Chief Architect, Kenaniah Cerny, with his findings. Together, they founded Aerodome and assembled top talent from the aerospace, public safety, and technology industries to develop the world's first DFR 2.0 system. With a clear mission in mind, the company successfully raised tens of millions of dollars to bring their vision to life.

Reaching new heights

Supported by leading venture capital firms and partnered with industry leaders, the Aerodome team built the most advanced drone-as-first-responder system in the country. Today, Aerodome is deployed and positively impacting numerous cities across the United States.

Building Next-Gen DFR

Leadership Team

Rahul Sidhu

CEO & Co-founder

Former CEO of SPIDR Tech, acquired by Versaterm in 2021. Former police officer, paramedic, crew chief and pilot. Started the 2nd DFR program in the country.

Kenaniah Cerny

Chief Architect and Co-founder

Former CTO of SPIDR Tech. More than twenty years of software engineering experience, much of it focused on public safety tech.

Brett Kanda

SVP of Business Development

Former VP Sales & Marketing at Brinc, UAS Business Development Manager at FLIR Systems, and Director at the FAA Nevada Institute for Autonomous Systems (NIAS)

Keith Kauffman

VP of Strategy

Former Police Chief & Fire Chief of Redondo Beach, CA. Previously served as Police Captain in Hawthorne, CA, where he also served as the Air Support Commander.

Fritz Reber

VP of Professional Services

Inventor of DFR. Former Head of Public Safety at Skydio. Former Captain, Chula Vista Police Department.

Jefferson Choi

Head of Engineering

Founding Software Engineer & Former Engineering Manager at SPIDR Tech. Masters degree from Georgia Tech in Computer Science specialized in Machine Learning.

Andii Lee

Head of Talent and People

Former Head of Talent with Komodo Health, Onica Technologies (acquired 2019), and Procore Technologies (PCOR).

Erik Till

Head of Marketing

Marketing leader at multiple aerospace and AI companies, including Natilus, Skydio, Slingshot Aerospace, and Zeitview (fka DroneBase).

Brandon Echols

Head of Deployments

Customer operations leader with experience deploying technology and hardware for public safety. Former manager at SPIDR Tech. Former Tucson Police Officer. MBA.