justin.schneider@heraldbulletin.com

In an inconspicuous location on the south side of Anderson, a local company is developing the future of defense.

Xtreme Alternative Defense Systems is the sister company to Pete Bitar’s Air Buoyant, which is developing the VertiPod flying platform. The company has multimillion dollar contracts through the U.S. Department of Defense, and its creations are already on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“We are a company at war,” Bitar said. “Every day when we come to work, we are supporting the war effort.”

XADS began in 2002, the first business to grow out of the Flagship Enterprise Center. By 2004, it had four military contracts to develop offensive and defensive weapons that harness electricity.

When XADS moved from The Flagship into hangar space at Anderson Municipal Airport, it called upon the knowledge and experience that Anderson had been developing since the Remy brothers. Bitar said the city has one of the highest rates of electrical engineers per capita.

That expertise went into photonic disruptors, which use lasers to cause temporary blindness. Now XADS has secured a $10 million contract with the Crane Division of the Naval Surface Warfare Center to develop technology to counter improvised explosive devices, or IEDs.

“More casualties in this war are being caused as a result of IEDs than guns,” said Bitar. “We’re developing a system that does not rely on people to detect and detonate IEDs. They don’t even have to know they’re there.”

Edward Fry, vice president of communications and marketing for XADS, said the company’s work with IEDs could have applications for land mines.

“People don’t just die from combat in war zones; they also die from starvation,” he said. “There are land mines all over the world that are still in the ground from past conflicts. If we can neutralize those, we can also give farmland back to people.”

The company has already fulfilled contracts for four systems totaling $4 million, and that number could rise to 40 systems and $20 million in the upcoming years. With the slogan “weapons that save lives,” XADS represents an interesting intersection of capitalism and patriotism.

“We’re not just here collecting a paycheck; we’re here to save lives,” Bitar said. “And we’re at the top end of the pay scale for Anderson. I think we do as well paying our employees as anybody.

“We believe in what we do. Nothing against any production-line workers, but we’re not just making a widget for someone’s entertainment.”