But instead of a service member resting a finger on the trigger well in preparation for the next shot, in video footage of the Bullfrog weapons system, a hulking, metal machine tilts the weapon just slightly, refocusing itself.

As the U.S. contends with steep expenses to counter cheap drones, Allen Control Systems, or ACS, announced Monday that the Marine Corps has chosen the Bullfrog autonomous weapon system to integrate into its airborne defenses.

The futuristic apparatus is an AI-enabled weapon system that detects, tracks and then automatically aims firearms against aerial threats like drones. That Marine Corps selected the system under its Ground Based Air Defense, or GBAD, program, which develops and fields capabilities to protect forces from airborne attacks.

The service plans to incorporate the Bullfrog into its Light Marine Air Defense Integrated System (L-MADIS), a counter-unmanned aircraft system mounted on two vehicles that relies heavily on electronic warfare.

The system is already in use in the Army and Navy and has been approved by Joint Interagency Task Force 401, the Pentagon’s unit established to streamline the acquisition of counter-drone technology.

The Defense Department’s focus on countering drones comes as conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East have underscored the increasingly important role of cheap drones on the modern battlefield. The Pentagon has placed a growing emphasis on developing and fielding counter-drone technology that is more scalable and less pricey.

Their prevalence has exposed the economic imbalance of U.S. air defense, as small, relatively inexpensive drones have forced the country to expend expensive interceptor missiles that can cost millions of dollars to make.

The challenge has become especially pronounced during the U.S. war with Iran, where American forces have relied heavily on costly defenses to counter Iran’s Shahed drones, which can cost around $35,000 compared to around $4 million for some interceptors. Experts have warned that the cost of a prolonged war may drastically deplete U.S. interceptor stores.

An ACS press release on the Marine Corps deal linked to the Bullfrog M240, which is compatible with the U.S. military’s belt-fed, fully automatic M240 machine gun. According to the company, the M240 system has a maximum effective range of nearly half a mile and can attack medium and large drones weighing up to 1,320 pounds. Without ammunition, the system weighs 300 pounds.

According to the company, which also has variants that support the M2 machine gun and M320 chain gun, the M240 system has “a cost-per-kill as low as $10.”

Other defense firms are also working to procure more affordable counter-UAS defenses. This week, Lockheed Martin announced a cheaper Patriot interceptor missile that they say will have a price tag of less than half of what other multimillion-dollar interceptors cost.

The New Mexico-based firm this week pulled the curtain back on Buckler, an interceptor designed to kill Group 3 drones — UAS weighing up to 1,320 pounds and flying below 18,000 feet at under 250 knots — for a cost of under $100,000 per unit.

Buckler is designed to knock out UAS at supersonic speeds, according to a company release, and is assembled with an airframe and propulsion system manufactured entirely at X-Bow factories, thus eliminating a production bottleneck that has plagued myriad high-priced systems reliant on multi-company components. Axios first reported about the X-Bow Buckler.

The unveiling at London’s 2026 Farnborough Airshow this week is the latest push by U.S. industry to solve an interceptor enigma that has become increasingly glaring as the nation’s war with Iran drags on.

U.S. troops in the military’s Central Command area of operations have continued to face the onerous task of leaning on exorbitantly priced interceptors to contend with Iran’s vastly cheaper, mass-produced Shahed attack drones.

The use of a single PAC-3 interceptor to knock one Shahed-136 out of the sky comes with a $4 million to $35,000 tradeoff, or a 114-1 cost-per-kill ratio.

“You can’t win a war of attrition trading million-dollar interceptors against thousand-dollar threats,” X-Bow founder and chief executive officer Jason Hundley said in a release. “Buckler has flown, it comes in under $100,000, and we build its airframe and propulsion ourselves — the part of the industrial base that is so stressed by today’s munitions demands. This is our answer to the call from the U.S. and its allies: affordable capability, at scale.”

X-Bow’s announcement comes after the firm’s recent test of the Buckler munition — one that derives its name, as TWZ noted, from a Medieval era shield — that demonstrated its propulsion and flight performance, the company announced.

Following a similar theme at Farnborough, Lockheed Martin on Monday introduced what it hopes will be another low cost per kill solution to the ever-evolving unmanned threat.

The defense giant this week introduced the Morfius X-Rotor, a ground-launched “one-to-many” airborne high power microwave counter-UAS system the company says can “neutralize more than 50 enemy drones in a single flight.”

Morfius is built, most notably, to be recovered and reused.

Lockheed also introduced a cheaper Patriot interceptor.

The business, which operates a plant in Singapore, is discussing cooperation with local partners elsewhere to extend its production footprint in the coming two years, an executive said.

Ira Hughes, a senior director of sales at Doodle Labs, told Defense News the company specializes in long-range, wireless mesh networking solutions that power drones and robotics. In Ukraine, the business works with local suppliers of unmanned systems and the Ukrainian military to adapt its radio solutions to the evolving threats on the battlefield.

“One of our customers makes two different types of drones. They make an inexpensive drone … with a cheap radio and camera system in it, and then they make a drone with our radio in it, and they use that for higher-value targets,” Hughes said. “They’ll go back to us and say: For vehicles with jammers, tanks with jammers, we go with your radios first, and this lets us change channels very quickly if we come under a jam.”

“We also have a very wide range of frequencies we can upgrade to in a single radio,” Hughes added. “So if we can move from the channels that they’re trying to jam to an unjammed channel, we continue to operate, and we can continue to get to the target.”

Amid rising demand for its radio systems, Doodle Labs is holding talks with manufacturers in the U.S. and Europe to launch local production. In particular, the company keeps an eye on a specific stateside policy provision.

“We are working on the ability to do U.S. manufacturing when needed. We’ll manufacture with a third party … and as the NDAA requirements change in the United States and the Made in America incentives come, we’ll be prepared and able to manufacture in the United States,” Hughes said, referring to the National Defense Authorization Act, an annual legislative vehicle for enacting defense-acquisition policies.

As drone production continues to increase in Western countries, allied nations will also need to ramp up their radio production as the existing supply chains lag behind the demand for unmanned systems, according to Hughes.

“A lot of those systems need advanced radios to be able to operate at the ranges and in the difficult conditions that they operate in,” he said. “We can make tens of thousands of radios a month, millions of radios a year if we need to.”

Such has been the case at London’s 2026 Farnborough Airshow, where Lockheed Martin on Monday introduced what it hopes will be a low cost per kill solution to the ever-evolving unmanned threat.

The Morfius X-Rotor is a ground-launched “one-to-many” airborne high power microwave, or HPM, counter-UAS system the company says can “neutralize more than 50 enemy drones in a single flight.”

Built, notably, to be recovered and reused, the Morfius is capable of using any command and control system and does not rely on any unique sensor or fire control radars, the company announced.

Morfius “sets a new benchmark for counter-drone capability — delivering a high kill rate while keeping the cost per kill low,” Randy Crites, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control Advanced Programs, said in a release. “By leveraging a lightweight, field reusable high-power microwave architecture, we provide the most effective, low-cost solution on the market today.”

The company announced it is accelerating prototype production of both the drone and its HPM payload in the interest of getting it into the hands of frontline troops.

The system was recently flight-tested in Arizona, California and Oklahoma, the company stated, where it also demonstrated interception and lethal capabilities. Additional tests are slated in the months ahead.

Monday’s announcement comes as the U.S. looks to reduce dependence on cost-prohibitive interceptors to defend against cheaper munitions, a juxtaposition that has come under increased scrutiny as U.S. forces have quickly expended interceptor stockpiles to combat Iranian missiles and Shahed drones.

Lockheed Martin on Monday also introduced a cheaper Patriot interceptor as a potential off ramp to the reliance on exorbitantly priced interceptors.

The system, called Hypnosis, consists of an array of mobile “stations” around a defended area, working in unison to disrupt the command-and-control signals of incoming threats, according to the manufacturer.

The company said the technology is the product of IAI’s experience in navigation warfare, of NAVWAR.

The soft-kill weapon is meant as a method for taking out large numbers of drones at once, in situations where hard-kill — or kinetic — intercepts would be tricky to execute because of the number of airborne objects.

The unveiling comes amid a resurgence of military confrontation between the United States and Iran and heightened tension across the Middle East as a result of it, as well as an intensifying exchange of missile and drone strikes between Russia and Ukraine.

Defense companies around the world have been working on technology enabling swarms of drones to attack targets with an inherent logic of their own.

Similarly, companies are also chasing defensive offerings for such scenarios.

Swarms are difficult to defend against because they can saturate and overwhelm traditional air defense networks, increasing the chances of at least one warhead making it through.

Each platform would carry between nine and 12 Hermes 650 Spark aircraft along with the deck infrastructure, control systems and mission support needed to operate them. Elbit described the approach as an alternative to acquiring a traditional aircraft carrier, aimed at giving naval forces extended maritime reach without the associated cost and complexity.

The Hermes 650 Spark is built around a front-mounted engine that provides a wider speed envelope and additional power margin, supporting short takeoff and landing (STOL) capability, heavier payloads and longer missions. The aircraft carries two payload bays, satellite communications and diagnostic systems, the Israeli company notes.

Elbit says the aircraft is built for compatibility with the ground control infrastructure of its larger Hermes 900 drone, meaning the smaller 650 Spark would be managed as part of a combined array with the Hermes 900 from a land-based control system. In such a setup, ships would serve as remote launch and recovery sites. According to the company, the arrangement is intended to reduce manpower requirements and the number of control stations needed, the company said.

The Israeli defense company cited Japan’s expansive maritime geography, Denmark’s responsibilities around Greenland, and Germany’s security environment in the Baltic Sea as examples of the kind of large, distant maritime areas the concept is meant to address. For Israel, a maritime UAS-carrier concept holds appeal given Israel’s encompassing offshore gas platforms that sit dozens of kilometers from shore and require monitoring against both conventional threats and drone and missile attacks from Iran and its proxies.

A converted vessel carrying multiple long-endurance UAS could extend early-warning coverage over these installations and fit Israel’s broader doctrinal preference for cost-effective, unmanned-heavy solutions over large manned platforms.

The company did not specify a timeline for when the system would become operational, nor did it name any customers or governments that have expressed interest in the idea.

Elbit’s announcement seeks to position the company as a player in this segment mainly against Turkey’s Baykar and South Korea’s Hanwha and can be interpreted as an attempt to export an existing system, the Hermes 650, in new operational packaging.

The sea service “is exploring the industrial base’s capacity to deliver highly capable, autonomous platforms optimized for operations from Ford-class and Nimitz-class Nuclear Aircraft Carriers,” according to the RFI. The response deadline has been set for Aug. 13.

The drones the service is targeting, part of the Air Wing of the Future Family of Systems, can be designed as “a single-role platform, a multi-role platform, or a modular FoS [family of systems],” according to the service.

But whatever the solution, the Navy wants the platforms to be capable of performing eight different missions: strikes against surface ships, strikes against land targets, anti-submarine warfare, air-to-air combat against enemy aircraft and missiles, electronic warfare, ISR, aerial refueling, and resupply flights for a naval task force.

The service is soliciting “industry expertise to identify a mix of platforms that can provide affordable mass, risk-tolerant platforms that can perform the above missions to counter current and emerging threats,” the request states.

The RFI lists a few specific requirements, including a minimum 1,000-nautical mile range for strike missions.

Drones must also possess “flight autonomy (e.g., carrier pattern, taxiing) and mission autonomy (e.g., dynamic tasking/retasking, threat evasion, automated aerial refueling) maturity.”

Additionally, they must be compatible with existing Unmanned Carrier Aircraft control systems, according to the RFI.

Significantly, while the RFI mostly focuses on carrier-based drones, the Navy also wants vertical-takeoff UAVs that can operate from other types of vessels, such as destroyers and mobile sea bases.

“The Navy is interested in novel concepts that can operate from any air capable platform in addition to the CVN (e.g., DDG, ESB) using Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL),” the RFI said.

The RFI is indicative of the Navy’s desire to eventually move on from fourth-generation carrier air wings to an air wing composed of fifth- and sixth-generation manned and unmanned aircraft.

The new drones “must demonstrate increased combat effectiveness over current fourth generation platforms at a given spot factor.”

The Air Wing of the Future, as designed, appears to be modeled for an old-fashioned battle of attrition, in which combat is waged by affordable — and expendable — drones rather than a handful of expensive platforms.

Contractors responding to the RFI are asked to “detail how your production approach supports rapid scaling and elasticity in a surge scenario,” and what techniques they will use to “keep unit recurring flyaway (URF) and sustainment costs within sustainable limits.”

Companies should also explain how their proposed designs will minimize maintenance requirements and fit into existing naval supply chains, according to the RFI. Potential manufacturers should also submit “planned capital investments (CAPX) or Internal Research and Development (IRAD) commitments to mature the solution.”

The Air Wing of the Future Family of Systems is part of the Trump administration’s Golden Fleet expansion plan for the Navy.

Existing family-of-system drone projects include the MQ-25A Stingray tanker and the Collaborative Combat Aircraft, or CCA.

The company is in talks with a French producer to launch manufacturing of its solutions abroad and is also looking for partners in other European countries, according to a senior company representative.

Oleksii Konik, the co-founder of Trinity Robotics, told Defense News that the company initially planned to make around 1,100 UGVs this year, but, with the Ukrainian military increasing its orders, the business is ramping up throughput at its facilities in Ukraine.

“We work with the [Ukrainian] military procurement agency and more than 20 military units directly,” Konik said. “The most important mission that we have now is the robotization of the battlefield, because only this will allow our country to win the war.”

The company’s flagship UGV, Konyk One, is suitable for performing logistics and medical evacuation tasks. At the same time, Trinity Robotics is working on a new variant that will be fitted with a turret. This will enable users to deploy the UGV for combat operations, according to the co-founder.

While some Ukrainian officials expect the country’s ban on exporting weapons could be lifted this year, local defense companies are currently prohibited from exporting their wares. Meanwhile, Trinity Robotics is discussing cooperation with partners from allied countries to produce its unmanned vehicles abroad.

“We are looking for partners, manufacturers from Europe that manufacture trucks, vehicles, military parts,” Konik said. “We have an opportunity to create a joint enterprise in Europe … to produce our UGVs.”

“This will allow us to give additional volumes of our UGVs to our end users who are interested in that,” he said.

Under Kyiv’s Build with Ukraine program, joint manufacturing isprimarily intended to cover the needs of the country’s armed forces, but surplus output can be exported to other countries.

The company’s co-founder said that Trinity Robotics is currently negotiating with an unnamed French producer to launch a joint venture and produce its UGVs abroad. The Ukrainian manufacturer is also working to secure funds for its expansion, with recent investors including Sweden’s Front Ventures and Hede Capital Partners.

In its standard version, Konyk One weighs 460 kg (1,014 lb) and has a load capacity of up to 300 kg, according to data from the producer.

The search comes after dozens of MQ-9s were swatted out of the sky during the Iran war, according to a May 13 Congressional Research Service report.

With the Air Force currently possessing about 135 Reapers — which cost approximately $30 million apiece — such a loss rate is not sustainable, especially against a force like Iran, whose air defenses are less sophisticated than those of China or Russia.

“The Joint Force’s reliance on low-density, high-value ‘exquisite’ (>$30 million) manned and unmanned aircraft is unsustainable against adversaries utilizing layered defenses enabled by increasingly low-cost antiaircraft capabilities,” warned the Defense Innovation Unit solicitation for a new drone, which the Pentagon wants to “execute missions that the MQ-9A performs today.”

Rather than build a better Reaper, DIU is opting for an expendable replacement. The Massed Modular Aircraft, or MMA, project aims to develop a UAV designed to operate in such large numbers that it can absorb heavy losses and still overwhelm enemy defenses.

Particularly of interest is the size of the MMA. Drone swarms may be the next big thing in unmanned warfare, but generally those hordes are made up of small, inexpensive UAVs with limited range and payload.

But the DIU solicitation envisions a drone that has long range and a heavy payload — and is still inexpensive enough for mass production. The solicitation calls for a payload of at least 2,800 pounds, a bit less than the MQ-9’s 3,800-pound capacity.

The MMA should also have an unrefueled combat range of at least 2,300 nautical miles, according to the solicitation, and a one-way transfer range of at least 8,000 nautical miles. Additionally, the drone should reach speeds of at least 200 miles per hour and have the ability to operate from a 6,000-foot runway or improvised airstrips.

The DIU solicitation states that the drone should have “sufficient available size, weight, power (25kW), and cooling (5kW) to host a variety of internal and/or external payloads,” with a level of autonomous operations that would allow one operator to control several drones.

The solicitation does not specify the MMA’s dimensions, though the specifications suggest a drone comparable in size to the MQ-9. It also did not list a desired price point, though presumably it would be less than the $30 million price tag of an MQ-9.

The timeline for the MMA project, meanwhile, is ambitious. DIU is calling for “full-scale prototype flight testing within 21 months of award, with a targeted Initial Operating Capability (IOC) in FY2031. IOC for MMA is envisioned as 20 mission-ready aircraft delivered to an operational unit, able to be deployed.”

Pentagon solicitations continue to reflect a mindfulness of lessons from the Ukraine War, as well as the experiences during the Iran War. In both conflicts, the defender exhausted interceptors before the attacker ran out of drones.

“Keeping a constant airborne MMA presence to launch weapons, gather intelligence, perform electronic warfare missions, or relay communications will force an adversary to stay on the defensive,” DIU said. “This relentless pressure will exhaust the adversary, forcing them to burn through expensive anti-aircraft missiles and resources faster than they can be replaced.”

Built by Northrop Grumman, the MQ-4C Triton is a high-altitude, long-endurance UAV specifically designed for maritime surveillance over vast stretches of sea.

According to Rutte, the aircraft will help NATO detect threats early, protect sea lines of communication, and support operations in demanding regions, such as the High North. “These aircraft can fly for long periods at high altitude and cover large areas, including over open water, more efficiently than most other aircraft can,” he said at the event, organized to coincide with the NATO summit this week.

Rutte stressed that intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) is a vital capability for the alliance, as it provides the situational awareness needed to make the right decisions and stay ahead of threats. “Today, allies are taking a concrete step to strengthen this capability,” he added.

Rutte said Northrop Grumman will build the Triton aircraft, while European industry will be work on mission support, data systems and infrastructure. “It is genuinely made in NATO and is creating jobs on both sides of the Atlantic,” he said.

The MQ-4C Triton is capable of operating at altitudes above 50,000 feet for 24-plus hours, with a range of 7,400 nautical miles, according to the manufacturer. Current users of the Triton are the U.S. Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force.

Thales will offer to buy the remaining Exail shares for €134 each, the company said on Monday. That’s a 44% premium to the Exail share price on June 25, the day before Safran announced talks with the Gorgé family at a price of €128.50 a share.

Safran said it ended exclusive negotiations on Friday about the potential acquisition after the parties were unable to reach mutually acceptable terms.

Exail provides maritime drones for several European autonomous mine-hunting systems, including the French program led by Thales. The market for mine warfare is expected to grow in the high single digits through to 2030, while the addressable market for unmanned anti-submarine warfare is forecast to increase eightfold by the end of the decade, Thales said in a presentation.

“With this acquisition, Thales aims to increase its scale in the underwater warfare market, and to expand its capabilities in inertial navigation systems through the addition of Exail’s complementary expertise,” the company said.

Thales said the acquisition allows it to gain critical mass in the growing market for unmanned mine countermeasures and speed up innovation in anti-submarine warfare. Exail produces a range of underwater and surface drones, as well as inertial navigation technology, with 76% of its sales coming from navigation and maritime robotics, and the remainder from advanced technologies.

Exail’s autonomous maritime drones are used for underwater mine clearing and seabed mapping, with emerging uses including anti-submarine warfare as well as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. Thales is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of sonar systems, including towed sonar used by many Western navies.

The purchase by Thales of the Gorgé family stake is expected to close in the third quarter of 2026, after which the company will file a mandatory tender offer for all of Exail’s shares and convertible bonds that is expected to close by early 2028 at the latest.

Thales said it expects “significant value creation” for its shareholders from the acquisition, with Exail adding to the company’s earnings per share from the first year, and an impact on Thales operating profit of more than €90 million by 2032.

Exail had 2025 revenue of €479 million, and an order book of €1.1 billion at the end of March, according to the presentation document. That compares with Thales sales of €22.1 billion last year, and an order book of €53.3 billion at the end of December.

Thales said the purchase will strengthen its underwater warfare business, allow it to gain market share in inertial navigation systems, and help accelerate development of quantum sensors. Combining the two companies could generate additional revenue of €500 million within 10 years, Thales said.

Fincantieri acquisitions

Meanwhile, Italian shipyard Fincantieri is spending €600 million to acquire four maritime drone and undersea engineering firms as it seeks to strengthen its role in the growing civil and defense undersea market.

The Italian state-controlled yard said it was buying firm Next Geosolutions, which offers offshore construction support services, as well as Italian start-ups WSense, Graal Tech and Defcomm which specialize in underwater communications and surface and undersea drones.

“The acquisitions announced today mark a historic transformation for Fincantieri, as it creates an international champion in the underwater domain,” the group’s CEO, Pierroberto Folgiero, said in a statement.

Supported by a €500 million capital increase in February, the acquisitions add to Fincantieri’s recent purchases of undersea firm Remazel and torpedo maker WASS.

Following the new acquisitions, Fincantieri’s sub-sea revenue will hit €1.1 billion this year, €1.4 billion in 2028 and €1.8 billion in 2030, the firm said.

Fincantieri said it would seek synergies between civilian and military sub-sea technologies, in the same way it has long sought synergies between its naval vessel and cruise ship businesses.

Following the acquisitions, Fincantieri will employ 1,500 in sub-sea activities in Italy, the Netherlands, the U.K., Norway and the United Arab Emirates, the firm said.

The Direct Reporting Portfolio Manager for Unmanned Systems, or DRPM-UxS, will become “the single joint integrator for all unmanned and autonomous system programs” in the department, according to a June 29 memo the Pentagon made public Wednesday. Its director, yet to be named, will answer to Deputy Secretary of Defense Stephen Feinberg and oversee how the military develops, buys, fields and sustains unmanned systems in the air, on the ground and at sea.

The office’s reach is wide, including small drones in unmanned aircraft groups 1 through 3, unmanned boats, ground robots and counter-drone systems. It also covers the artificial intelligence and swarming software that guides them. Unmanned underwater vehicles will be handled jointly with the Pentagon’s submarine portfolio manager.

The office’s authority stops short of the Pentagon’s major defense acquisition programs, the big-ticket programs that already follow a separate approval process set in law. That means large airframes like the Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft and the Navy’s MQ-25 Stingray and MQ-4C Triton stay with the services, as does the Navy’s medium unmanned surface vessel.

Two existing organizations are now moving under the new office. Joint Interagency Task Force 401, which has led the fight against small aerial drones, will expand to countering unmanned threats in every domain. The Defense Autonomous Warfare Group, the Pentagon’s effort to mass-produce cheap drones, becomes a subordinate element. Neither will see its staff or positions relocated, the memo notes.

The new office inherits one of the largest spending increases in the Pentagon’s budget. The department’s latest budget request set aside $53.6 billion for autonomous drone platforms, part of what Pentagon officials called an unprecedented commitment to drones and counter-drone systems.

Separately, the memo names the Defense Innovation Unit, the Pentagon’s link to commercial tech firms, as the single point of contact for the new portfolio.

The office holds significant power. It will act as the milestone decision authority for its programs, the official who decides whether a weapon advances through development, and it will take precedence on drone acquisition matters behind only Hegseth and Feinberg.

The office can act as the top buying official on its contracts, order the services to shift money between programs through the Pentagon comptroller, and stop any system from reaching the field.

The move also centralizes congressional engagement through the DRPM-UxS, requiring every part of the department to clear its drone-related plans with the office before contacting lawmakers.

The memo says the office’s programs, jobs and people are exempt from the department’s hiring freezes, personnel reductions and reductions in force, and gives its chief the power to hire directly. The memo also lays out a staffing timeline. Once a director is named, hiring is to begin within 30 days, an organizational plan is due within 60 and a full list of the programs moving over is due within 90.

The reorganization is the latest step in Hegseth’s push to field weapons faster, a broader “speed to delivery” initiative that has already drawn warnings from the government’s top auditor.

A Government Accountability Office report released Tuesday found the Pentagon’s independent testing office, which Hegseth cut from 126 civilian jobs to 30 last year, now watches just 15 of about 110 active programs on one fast-track buying pathway, Defense News reported.

It is the latest of several direct reporting portfolio managers Hegseth’s team has stood up to pull the department’s top priorities under Feinberg, and the widest in scope. What this all means for the drone programs already underway inside the services is not spelled out in the memo.

With the counter-drone market “red hot,” demand for affordable short-range radars could grow tenfold by 2030, Frankenberg told Defense News at the Eurosatory defense show near Paris last month. Echodyne, based near Seattle, is shipping radars as fast as it can make them, and will cut the ribbon on a new facility this month that at full rate will lift production capacity tenfold.

As drones have become the main killers on the battlefield in Ukraine and inflicted billions of damage in the Middle East, counter-unmanned aerial systems could be spotted all over the 2026 edition of Eurosatory, the world’s biggest defense show. The Echodyne team tallied at least 29 stands displaying the firm’s radars integrated in C-UAS offerings.

“There is a rush of interest globally for counter-drone,” Frankenberg said. “The Ukraine war made it obvious to everyone that drones had changed the face of warfare, but the Iran war made it obvious that everything’s at risk.”

Defeating drones starts with detection, and suppliers of relatively small and affordable radars such as Echodyne, Blighter and Robin Radar have benefited from surging interest in anti-drone warfare, which doesn’t require the powerful and expensive radars that equip missile and air-defense systems.

“The more traditional defense-radar companies make amazing radars,” Frankenberg said, citing RTX, SRC and Thales. “But they all cost half a million dollars or a million dollars a face. If you have a million cheap, lethal drones, you can’t have one battlefield-wide system at $5 million or $10 million. You have to have a ton of inexpensive, yet highly effective systems.”

Polish-Ukrainian startup develops radar to track elusive, low-flying drones

Echodyne’s compact, solid-state radars use the firm’s proprietary metamaterials technology, with densely packed antenna arrays to electronically steer radar beams without much of the complexity and cost of traditional phased-array systems.

The firm was founded in 2014 as a spin-off from Intellectual Ventures, with early investors including Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. Frankenberg said the reason to create Echodyne was to make radars with the performance of active electronically scanned array radars “for fractions of the cost.”

Echodyne’s small radars, about as big as a hard-cover book, cost around $40,000 a panel, while its bigger radars, the size of a small carry-on suitcase, are in the $160,000 range, the CEO said.

The company is investing $40 million in a new facility that will lift production capacity to 30,000 radar panels a year, a mix of smaller and larger models. Frankenberg said Echodyne has advanced its entire 2027 expansion plan to this year, with the new plant already online before the official ribbon cutting in July.

“There’s just massive demand now, and it goes back to the point that the only way to counter mass is with mass, and so there’s just going to be a huge number of these systems,” Frankenberg said. “We’re building this new factory for a reason.”

The market for small radars will probably reach hundreds of thousands of panels by 2030 from a market that today numbers in the tens of thousands, according to Frankenberg. He said Echodyne is currently leading in the segment, but didn’t want to provide an exact number for market share.

Echodyne’s first radar, the book-sized EchoFlight, designed for commercial drone collision avoidance, got a lot of press but “wasn’t going in a hurry anywhere commercially,” the CEO said. The firm got its first big break in 2017, when Anduril adopted EchoGuard for its Sentry autonomous surveillance tower, which in turn kicked off interest in the radar for ground-to-air drone detection.

The company developed the larger EchoShield radar using its metamaterials technology for clients wanting more detection range, and introduced the model around the time of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, as demand for military counter-drone systems took off. Defense now accounts for about 65% of sales, a reversal of the mix before 2022.

EchoGuard can typically track a small quadcopter drone at 1 km (1,100 yards), while the larger EchoShield can do the same at 3 km and track more than 1,000 objects at a given time. The radars are usually part of a sensor stack including optical sensors and often also radio-frequency detection.

While “exquisite systems” for traditional air defense won’t go away, Echodyne expects much greater demand for affordable short-range radar than high-end systems, according to Frankenberg.

“You’re going to need a massive number of short-range systems. All those short-range systems need to be able to detect and track the incoming threat, which means they’re going to need some kind of radar.”

Echodyne has outgrown the startup phase and considers itself a medium-sized technology company, with around 60% of revenue from the United States and 40% from international markets, Frankenberg said.

The firm worked with Northrop Grumman around 2020 to integrate EchoGuard on Bushmaster chain guns for counter-drone fire control, with Frankenberg saying radar cueing solved tracking problems that optical sensors alone struggled with. That approach has since been adopted by turret makers including Kongsberg and Rheinmetall.

For any platform with a gun, “that gun needs to be able to defend the platform,” Frankenberg said. “Every maneuver unit should have this. At the end of the day, is that your most exquisite counter- drone system? Maybe not, but does it allow you to defend yourself in battle? Yes.”

The CEO said turning guns into anti-drone weapons requires a radar, maybe a computer upgrade depending on the platform, software algorithms, “and then the gun is ready to go. We think there’s going to be huge demand for this.”

Echodyne radars are used on high-powered microwave C-UAS from Epirus and ThinKom, laser-based systems from AeroVironment and Electro Optic Systems, in European laser-weapon programs, and in directed-energy projects with primes who make their own radars, Frankenberg said. Other solutions include pallets loaded with interceptors, and an Echodyne radar to cue them.

“We’re on pretty much anything you can think of in the counter drone space,” Frankenberg said.

No single system will win the C-UAS race, “you’re going to see a mass of systems,” Frankenberg said. He said lasers and high-powered microwaves are good options where appetite for collateral damage is low, whereas rotary machine guns are extremely effective “if you don’t care about collateral effects.”

With the proliferation of new drone counters, “I’m sure it’s confusing for buyers,” Frankenberg said. “There’s going be room for a lot of them to be effective and be winners, but which ones, it’s hard to pick right now.”

As for Echodyne, the firm became profitable last year and is open to all long-term options, including staying private, an initial public offering or an acquisition, according to the CEO. Frankenberg said his investors right now are “incredibly happy” with how business is going.

“We’re clearly in the middle of this market that’s red hot, and so from that standpoint, it makes sense that we would be attractive to people,” Frankenberg said. “We’re profitable, attractively profitable, so we can run as long as we want, but good business management is, always be open to what comes around.”

Ukraine’s 427th Separate Unmanned Systems Regiment, known as Rarog, posted the unverified night-vision clip to its Telegram channel last month showing an interceptor closing on a one-way attack drone and a flash at the moment of contact. The unit flies Ukrainian-built interceptors alongside foreign systems, and did not specify which it used.

Foreign Policy Research Institute senior fellow Rob Lee shared the clip and called it the first public video he believed of Perennial Autonomy’s Merops, the American interceptor, “targeting Shahed/Geran one-way attack drones.”

The footage lands as the Army is moving to build a version of that drone it can call its own.

On June 23, the Army opened a Low-Cost Interceptor program at an industry day in Arlington, Virginia, seeking complete systems for under $1 million and government-owned designs it can hand to any manufacturer, with a first live-fire demonstration set for the fall.

The program would let the Army break the interceptor into pieces, buy or lease the design, and use contract manufacturers to build it — so it owns the weapon rather than depending on a single prime, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll said in May.

The Army does not own the Merops design and cannot produce them at will. The new program would change that, letting it hand a government-owned blueprint to any manufacturer rather than buy from only a single contracting company.

The vendor that the U.S government appears to be seeking independence from in this case is Perennial Autonomy, the maker of Merops.

Former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt launched the defense startup in 2023 and signed a three-year, $500 million contract with the Pentagon in May — the largest single counter-drone deal it’s ever awarded — making the company uniquely influential to military supply chains.

The Pentagon turned to Merops after burning through hundreds of Patriot missiles defending against Iranian Shaheds, each Patriot costing more than $3 million and drawing down stockpiles Ukraine has long depended on for its own air defense.

The Army bought 13,000 Merops in eight days after the Iran war began in late February, at roughly $15,000 each, Driscoll told Congress in April.

“They protected U.S. troops,” the Army secretary told lawmakers, defending the cost as a fraction of what a Shahed costs to produce. “We will make that trade all day long.”

A Merops costs roughly $15,000 against a Shahed that runs $30,000 to $50,000.

The interceptor is a roughly three-foot, fixed-wing drone that flies up to 174 mph (280 km/h) and homes in on its target using thermal radar or radio-frequency sensors when its links are jammed.

It has downed more than 4,000 Russian drones in Ukraine, German production partner Twentyfour Industries said.

The system has conservatively accounted for 40% of all Shahed destruction in Ukraine, Brig. Gen. Curtis King, commanding general of the 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command, told reporters at a Polish base in November.

NATO has already built Merops interceptors into the forces protecting its eastern flank.

Romania folded Merops into its national air defenses on June 29, joining Poland in fielding it, and Lithuania bought 48 interceptors earlier this year. Officials said they are planning a deployment along the Danube corridor, where Russian drones have repeatedly crossed from the war next door, according to Reuters.

But the system still faces technical difficulties.

In mid-June, footage circulated of Merops interceptors failing to down a Russian drone, and a Romanian field test in April logged a failure the military attributed to “target maneuvering,” according to Greek publication Pronews. The outlet still called Merops one of the most effective low-cost tools in the drone war.

Ukraine’s military also flies an array of homegrown drones that run $1,000 to $3,000 a unit and have downed thousands of Russian drones since 2024, on a cost exchange that runs as steep as 85-to-1 in Kyiv’s favor.

Kyiv asked the Pentagon last August to help scale that manufacturing, offering to co-produce its cheap interceptors for the U.S.

Washington declined.

The Sea Baby, a strike boat built and operated by Ukraine’s Security Service, or SBU, can now carry six to eight FPV drones in side compartments that open during an attack, alongside thermobaric Shmel rockets, according to Russian accounts of the boats operating around the Kinburn Spit, roughly 40 miles east of Odesa, shared by Forbes.

Ukrainian officials count on the autonomous vessels’ ability to move closer toward Russian military positions than land-based launchers could, with the SBU assuming a range of 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) on a 4,400-pound (2,000-kilogram) payload. Some of the drones in the cargo hold are guided by fiber-optic cable, leaving them immune to the radio jamming that downs ordinary FPVs, according to Forbes.

Ukraine has turned nearly everything it fields into an FPV launcher. Sea drones carrying fiber-optic FPVs struck the Russian ports of Tuapse and Novorossiysk in September. Several companies have rigged ground robots to fire the same drones, and both sides have flown balloons carrying them.

“The SBU became the first in the world to pioneer this new kind of naval warfare,” Brig. Gen. Ivan Lukashevych said at an unveiling of the Sea Baby’s latest generation in October 2025, “and we continue to advance it.”

Ukraine fields two distinct naval drone families.

The Sea Baby is developed and operated by the SBU, Ukraine’s domestic security service. The Magura – built by Uforce for the GUR, Ukraine’s military intelligence directorate – is a separate system with its own lineage and export path.

The Sea Baby is primarily remote-piloted from a mobile ground station but carries AI-assisted targeting and navigation systems that allow it to operate autonomously when communications are jammed or degraded – a design imperative born from Russia’s intense electronic warfare environment over the Black Sea.

American forces have begun using the boats themselves.

U.S. special forces sank a target ship with a Ukrainian Magura at the Balikatan 2026 exercise off the Philippines on June 24, the first use of the technology in the Indo-Pacific.

The interest is not one-off. A cheap, expendable boat that can carry a cluster of attack drones to within striking range is exactly the kind of weapon the United States is looking for as it prepares for a possible war with China across the Pacific’s vast distances.

“Magura’s successes on the Ukrainian-Russian front confirm their value for use in the Indo-Pacific region,” Oleg Roginsky, chief executive of Uforce, the London-based startup that makes the Magura, told Bloomberg last week.

Uforce is in talks with Indo-Pacific buyers and weighing at least two production sites in the region, Roginsky said. Ukraine barred weapons exports in 2022 to keep its arms at the front, and only began opening that market in 2025.

Ukrainian naval drones have sunk or damaged roughly a dozen Russian warships since 2022 and forced the Black Sea Fleet to pull its main operations back to Novorossiysk, the U.S. Naval Institute reported in September.

Each boat costs a few hundred thousand dollars, below the price of a single modern torpedo.

The Pentagon is studying the lesson as it shifts focus toward a possible conflict with China.

The U.S. Navy expects to field thousands of small uncrewed surface vessels across the Indo-Pacific by 2030, Capt. Garrett Miller, who leads its Surface Development Group One, said at a Navy symposium on April 20, as reported by USNI News.

In a report last July, the Center for Strategic and International Studies urged the U.S. military to copy Kyiv’s acquisition methods, arguing that “unlike theoretical models or peacetime pilots, Ukraine’s innovations in defense acquisition are battlefield tested.”

And Ukraine has continued to innovate. Its Sub Sea Baby underwater drone struck an Improved Kilo-class submarine at its pier in Novorossiysk on Dec. 15, the first time an unmanned underwater vehicle has hit a submarine in port, the SBU said.

Russia denied any damage, but satellite imagery taken the following day showed a 9-meter crater in the pier, the submarine visibly lower in the water, and the vessel, later identified as the B-271 Kolpino, unmoved at its berth more than a month later. Ukrainian and independent analysts assessed it as a mission kill.

NATO is already training with Kyiv’s tactics, too.

Ukraine’s navy led a NATO red team and beat the alliance’s blue force in all five scenarios at the REPMUS naval-drone exercise in Portugal in September, the first time it had run the opposing force.

The announcement gives operational shape to the so-called “Drone Deal” signed on June 9 between Kulbergs and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the Nordic-Baltic Eight summit in Tallinn, the first meeting between the two leaders. Latvia is the sixth country to join Ukraine’s bilateral drone cooperation framework.

Under the agreement, Ukraine will supply Latvia with strike drones, ground robotic complexes, and maritime drone systems, while Latvia will supply Ukraine with domestically produced anti-drone systems, Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov and his Latvian counterpart Raivis Melnis previously confirmed during a meeting in Kyiv on June 13. No specifics were offered.

The Latgale region, where the new drone factory is to be built, is historically one of Latvia’s most economically disadvantaged. Kulbergs said the area needs investment and jobs, and that his government would “do everything necessary” to site the plant near the Russian border. Construction should start this year.

Moscow has been publicly outraged at the Baltic states’ alleged role in Ukraine’s drone warfare against the Russian hinterland, accusing the three small republics of opening their airspaces to Ukrainian drones on their way to strike targets over a thousand kilometers from Kyiv in Russia’s Baltic region and the St. Petersburg area.

More outlandish Russian claims have even included accusations that the Baltic States are allowing Ukraine to launch drones from their territories. The Russian foreign intelligence service SVR, which is renowned for making unsubstantiated and wildly escalatory claims regularly, published a press release with this accusation earlier this year.

The opening of the drone production facility will surely face criticism from Moscow and is all but certain to be seen as an escalatory move. It may also strengthen Russian propaganda’s case for singling out the small Baltic states as particularly hostile − and a particularly urgent problem − for Moscow.

Key details − including the plant’s precise location, cost-sharing arrangements between Riga and Kyiv, and which drone types will be produced − have not been publicly disclosed.

In addition to the joint drone factory, the Latvian prime minister also announced that counter-drone systems will begin operating along Latvia’s borders with Russia and Belarus in July and August − removing the need, he said, to scramble fighter aircraft in response to every drone incursion. “In the event of a threat from drones, we won’t have to take aircraft into the air every time, which is a very expensive and effective solution, but not the best and most productive,” Kulbergs said.

A top Latvian official previously described to Defense News a system of launch canisters stationed along the border.

Yesterday’s announcement comes against a fraught political backdrop in Riga. A suspected stray Ukrainian drone that entered Latvian airspace from Russia exploded at an oil storage facility in Rēzekne on May 7, damaging four empty fuel tanks. The incident triggered the resignation of both the defense minister and Prime Minister Evika Siliņa within days. Kulbergs took office shortly thereafter.

The contract was awarded this month to Overland AI, a Seattle-based company whose autonomy stack already powers military vehicles including General Dynamics’ Small Multipurpose Equipment Transport (S-MET); the Army’s 18th Airborne Corps; Textron’s Ripsaw M5; and used by DARPA, among others

In a round table meeting with reporters on Monday, Overland co-founder and CEO Byron Boots said the Other Transaction Authority production agreement, awarded through the office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, made the company the first ground autonomy provider to prime a production agreement with the U.S. military.

“Ground autonomy matters now more than ever,” Boots said. “We’re seeing the proliferation of uncrewed ground vehicles in conflicts like the one in Ukraine, and tech maturity is really there.”

Adding, “We’re registering extremely high demand from U.S. operational units who want to incorporate this technology into their concepts of operation, so in the last six months or so we’ve really seen the U.S. Army and Marine Corps lean forward into autonomy.”

Boots said Overland has participated in multiple major military exercises over the last year, providing the Army’s 173rd Airborne Corps with autonomous vehicles for breaching and resupply in exercises including Agile Spirit and African Lion. The company, he said, also provided the 82nd Airborne with autonomous ground vehicles for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance during a six-month period around a training rotation at Fort Polk, Louisiana.

“We’re registering extremely high demand from U.S. operational units who want to incorporate this technology into their concepts of operation,” Boots said.

Few details are available yet as to the model and capabilities of the systems Overland plans to provide to the Marine Corps. Announcements included images of the Overland-made ULTRA, which weighs 2,500 pounds and has a payload of about 1,000 pounds, but Boots would not confirm details.

He did say that the Corps had contracted for “about a dozen” of the vehicles, and said they would be delivered in about nine months.

Boots cited specific uses for the autonomous vehicles including resupply and ISR, but also mentioned the possibility of integrating them into the Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS), a recently fielded mobile counter-drone weapon mounted on a Joint Light Tactical Vehicle.

“It’s not intended to replace the JLTV,” Boots said. “We’re going to start by integrating the vehicle into the system, providing a resupply capability for the other vehicles, which are part of the system, and we may build on it from there.”

While the Marine Corps has emphasized the Pacific area of operations in its pursuit of new ground-based air defense systems, Boots said the vehicles Overland was providing were not theater-specific, and were capable of traversing “a very wide range of different terrain.” More details, he said, would be forthcoming closer to delivery of the vehicles.

“The uncrewed ground vehicle removes an operator from the proximity of whatever you’re doing, and you can imagine how useful that will be,” he said.

“The thing that we’re really excited about here is the fact that we are at a point where the U.S. military is really seeing the utility of vehicles like this and has moved beyond experimentation and prototyping to production contracts, and we’re excited to lead the way there,” Boots concluded.

Production activities at the facility, which will be capable of manufacturing 3,000 autonomous interceptors per month, are scheduled to begin this August, according to a senior company representative.

Balázs Nagy, the chief executive and co-founder of Tytan Technologies, told Defense News the company’s interceptor drones are extensively used in Ukraine where the nation’s military has employed them as a cost-efficient, effective and easy-to-use solution to counter airborne threats.

Legacy “systems couldn’t prove themselves in Ukraine. Bigger platforms have been destroyed with just very, very cheap drones. What we are doing at Tytan is we are making protecting the same airspace 200 times cheaper than with legacy systems,” Nagy said.

“And how we are doing that is by producing and developing autonomous counter-drone systems to neutralize enemy drones in the air,” he added. This is a major paradigm shift, going from very hard and expensive hardware to very simple and scalable hardware and very sophisticated software.”

Building on its interceptors’ use by a rising number of allies, including Germany and the Baltic States, Tytan Technologies is advancing projects to expand its manufacturing foothold into new markets, with Poland and Hungary named as potential locations for new factories.

“With the launch of our new, bigger German factory, we have a blueprint that we can use to scale up production in different regions,” Nagy said.

Tytan Technologies offers a range of autonomous interceptors which are powered by AI. These include: the EOS, a short-range multicopter interceptor developed to counter small drones categorized as NATO Class I unmanned threats; and the METIS, a long-range fixed-wing interceptor designed to neutralize NATO Class II drones, according to data from the company.

The U.S. Embassy in the Philippines announced this week the transfer of the AUSVs worth 754 million pesos ($13 million) and produced by American firm Ocean Aero to the sea forces to enhance capabilities “to detect and respond to maritime challenges and illegal maritime activities.”

The transfer comes after the Armed Forces of the Philippines revealed that China discreetly deployed a 6x6 meter floating platform equipped with an antenna in late May at the southeastern portion of Scarborough Shoal, a fishing lagoon within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.

Philippine officials claim the platform was being used to illegally gather Philippine maritime data and could serve as a prelude for China’s island-building activities. Philippine officials lodged diplomatic protests, and China removed the structure last week.

Solar-powered Tritons are capable of autonomous navigation both on the surface and underwater and can support a diverse array of missions such as intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance (ISR), anti-submarine warfare, maritime strike, and mine countermeasures.

The drones can be fitted with video cameras, thermal imaging and sonars, and may be deployed from shore, vessels, or aircraft. It can dive down to 100 meters and remain underwater for 10 days. It can also conduct surface patrols for up to 30 days.

In Ocean Aero’s headquarters in Gulfport, Mississippi, the AUSVs are mobilized to protect subsea cables from sabotage, and the company has pitched the AUSVs for U.S. Navy mine-clearing in the Strait of Hormuz.

Officials told Defense News the AUSVs were shown to the Navy during the recent iteration of Exercise Balikatan and are among a series of systems and platforms the U.S. had planned to transfer to the Philippines to boost military capabilities.

The Tritons will also boost existing efforts to monitor subsea cables and gas pipelines, officials said.

“The ability to monitor and respond to maritime challenges — illegal fishing, gray zone activities, and threats to freedom of navigation — requires persistent, long-endurance awareness that no single ship or aircraft can provide alone. The Triton fills that gap by expanding the capabilities of the Philippine Navy into critical waterways,” U.S. Embassy Chargé d’Affaires Bridgette Walker said in a statement.

The drones are included in the Philippines-U.S. Security Sector Assistance Roadmap, a multi-year agreement to ease the acquisition, transfer, and sharing of equipment like radars and unmanned systems to strengthen maritime surveillance.

Last December, the U.S. Senate earmarked $2.5 billion for Philippine military modernization to be disbursed from 2026 to 2030.

The development comes shortly after Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced the company has offered Poland a role in its X-BAT autonomous vertical-takeoff fighter jet program, including some of the manufacturing activities for the craft.

Shield AI said in a statement that the V-BAT will be deployed aboard a Polish Navy vessel, ensuring maritime domain awareness and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) support to the force.

“V-BAT has proven its capabilities in Ukraine and beyond, particularly in environments where communications and GPS links are disrupted or denied,” Ryan Tseng, Shield AI’s president, co-founder and chief strategy officer, was quoted in the statement. “Operations in the Baltic Sea, where security threats against critical energy and communications infrastructure are becoming more frequent, demand reliable sensor platforms and systems in all-weather conditions and sea states.”

The Armament Agency, the Polish ministry’s procurement arm, said in a statement that “the delivery of the system, which comprises several platforms, is planned for later in 2026.”

The deal puts Poland in line to become the first country on NATO’s eastern flank to acquire the drone. Warsaw will join other operators, including Greece and the Netherlands, as well as the U.S. Navy and the Japan Maritime Self Defence Force, according to data from Shield AI.

“In addition to the aircraft themselves, the V-BAT system comes with ground control stations, antennas, spares, and maintenance equipment, and other operating equipment needed to maintain operational readiness,” a spokesperson for Shield AI told Defense News.

The spokesperson said that “Shield AI is actively pursuing partnerships with Polish industry to support future autonomy, aviation, and defense programs. We look forward to expanding our engagement with Poland and sharing additional details in the coming months.”

Since 2025, when Poland launched the Drone Force, its latest military component, the country has accelerated purchases of various classes of unmanned systems. Last month, the nation also joined the Pentagon’s counter-drone initiative to gain access to a marketplace that connects partner countries with emerging technology suppliers.

The technology, a hallmark of the fighting in Ukraine, arrived here shortly after Hezbollah launched an attack against Israel on March 2, following the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran that began days prior, reigniting a new large-scale war.

The tethered drones rely on a spool of fiber-optic cable that maintains a direct link between the operator and the aircraft, making them immune to jamming and to other regular electronic warfare measures. In the context of southern Lebanon, their appearance represents a major shift in the nature of the conflict.

Hezbollah released the first video footage of a fiber-optic drone attack on an Israeli tank in late March 2026.

Asked about the technology, Hezbollah referred to Ali Jazini, a military expert close to the group, who said that the drones are estimated to cost between $300 and $400 each. The craft appear to be manufactured locally using 3D printing technology, relying on available electronic components commonly used for civilian purposes.

“Hezbollah is one of the most sophisticated non-state actors in the world. But when it comes to FPV’s drones, they’re learning themselves,” Samuel Bendett, a military analyst and Russia defense expert with the U.S.-based Center for Naval Analyses, said.

Fiber-optic FPV drones have quickly become a critical weapon, and the only real requirement is having experienced operators, as improper handling can easily damage the cable.

“But if you are in your 30s or 40s, you grew up with PCs and PlayStations and know how to maneuver a joystick,” said Luxembourg-based defense commentator Hamzé Attar.

As part of the growing gamification of warfare, simulation tools now allow operators to train across a wide range of scenarios, significantly shortening the learning curve, “ultimately enabling Hezbollah to also deploy night-vision-capable FPV systems”, he said.

Fiber-optic FPV drones represent a solution born out of necessity to evade electronic warfare and enable more precise strikes, after the group’s supply line from Syria was disrupted following the fall of Assad regime. These drones do not require runways or any specialized launch infrastructure, and they also allow the pilot to retain visual contact with the target until the final seconds before impact.

Intelligence about launch sites and a pilot’s location is significantly more difficult to obtain than intelligence on other drone activity, and actors are banking on that asymmetry.

In that sense, Israeli forces seem to have been caught flat-footed. “No one is more aware of technological and drone developments around the world than Israel,” said Bendett. “So it was rather surprising to see the Israeli military not fully accounting for the potential use of these drones.”

This created a battlefield advantage for Hezbollah, alongside its deep familiarity with the terrain and geography of southern Lebanon.

Knowledge transfer of technologies and tactics typically occurs through multiple channels, including observation of other battlefields, widely available open-source footage, and training, according to analysts. Some of the expertise developed in Russia may have been transferred to Iran, and passed on to Hezbollah.

“Just as Iran has supplied technology and training for Russia’s use of Shahed drones, it is likely that Iran may have received training from Russian forces on the use of certain types of tactical UAVs”, Bendett said.

Analysts believe that any military engaged in conflict will, in one form or another, encounter technologies first seen in Ukraine, driven in part by the trade-off between efficiency and cost.

“We are seeing some of that in conflicts across the Middle East, Africa, the Sahel, and South Asia. We are also seeing the use of drones by drug cartels in Latin America,” Bendett said.

Countermeasures against the flying warheads include nets, acoustic warning sensors, spinning cables, or electromagnetic systems intended to disrupt electronics, but such measures can also risk affecting a force’s own assets operating in the same area.

According to Jazini, solutions remain limited at present, even for larger armies.

Said Attar: “They changed the battlefield and will continue to be a destabilizing factor in warfare until a proper solution is found.”

The snazzily branded platform, called TrophyLab and accessible at trophylab.mod.gov.ua, currently catalogs more than 115 samples of seized Russian equipment across 79 categories. Users who pass a vetting process gain access to blueprints, component analyses, schematics, and the findings of Ukrainian state laboratories and intelligence agencies − more than 225 studies at present, according to the ministry.

Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov announced the launch on social media Thursday, framing the platform as a strategic tool for “the entire civilized world.” Among the listed items available for study are, for example, a Kinzhal hypersonic missile and a T-90M tank.

Ukraine’s demand for tiny drone laser-targeting systems spurs new product launches

“Every missile, drone and vehicle seized on the battlefield is now a source of knowledge for the free world,” Fedorov wrote.

Beyond digital access, the platform allows verified partners to request the physical hardware itself for non-destructive inspection, disassembly or full destruction testing, a provision that could prove particularly valuable for nations developing electronic countermeasures or seeking to harden their own platforms against specific Russian threats.

Access is not public. Eligible users include Ukrainian defense forces and manufacturers, foreign defense ministries, partner-country defense companies meeting MoD requirements, and accredited scientific institutions. The vetting requirement reflects the sensitivity of the material − some of the captured systems have not been publicly disclosed in technical detail − but also limits the platform’s reach to states and firms already embedded in Ukraine’s defense cooperation network.

The initiative fits into a broader pattern of Kyiv institutionalizing battlefield knowledge as a transferable asset. Among similar moves, Ukraine has previously shared countless hours of frontline drone footage to train allied AI systems and signed a bilateral agreement with Germany − the so-called Brave Germany program − to jointly support startups to develop deep-strike weapons based on lessons learned in the field. Last month, Kyiv also established a formal legal framework for using captured Russian equipment in international defense cooperation.

Soldiers at Joint Base Lewis-McChord cased the colors of the 1st Multi-Domain Task Forces Headquarters and 7th ID Headquarters Support Company and uncased the 7th Infantry Division (Multi-Domain Command-Pacific) Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion colors, in a merger that was first announced earlier this year.

“We are merging the operational endurance, flexibility and protection of our proven Stryker formations with the long-range sensing and precision fires of our multi-domain task force,” Maj. Gen. Bernard J. Harrington, the commanding general of the 7th ID (MDC-PAC), said in the Army release.

Central to the new command is what the Army calls the Cross Domain Contact Layer, a framework designed to connect intelligence gathering, electronic warfare and artificial intelligence into a continuous network.

It will combine sensors, drones, precision weapons and digital networks into a single architecture spanning land, air, sea, space and cyberspace.

“Through our emerging Cross Domain Contact Layer concept, our division will employ capabilities such as unmanned surface vessels; long-range, one-way attack drones; and launched effects to penetrate the adversary’s anti-access/area-denial network,” Harrington said in the release. “Every radar that emits, every node that transmits, every headquarters that commands, we aim to hold continuously at risk alongside our joint partners and allies.”

The change is part of the Army’s broader transformation initiative. According to the release, the redesignation reflects the service’s push to distribute advanced capabilities across maneuver formations operating in contested environments.

The redesignation builds on years of innovation in the Indo-Pacific, the Army said, including deployments by the 1st Multi-Domain Task Force, or MDTF, and collaboration with the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

“These soldiers have invested wholeheartedly in experimenting, deploying, and employing capabilities that work from the heavens to the earth, from the air to the sea, and flow with all the digits that go in between,” said Col. Charles W. Kean, the 7th ID (MDC-PAC) deputy commanding officer-effects and former 1st MDTF commander. “It has truly been inspirational to watch them in action.”

State procurement agency Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Agency has released notices for a demonstration schedule next month with the goal of fast-tracking acquisitions and expediting mass production and deployment.

The interceptor drone systems are expected to be installed by 2027 near radar sites, bases, vessels and other critical locations, the agency stated.

This follows an earlier notice released by the Ministry of Defense late last month for autonomous unmanned systems that could detect and counter swarms of “multiple long-range suicide UAVs … such as the Shahed-136.”

The envisioned craft should already be in use by other armed forces and have successfully shot down Shahed-like drones, according to the notice. In addition, they must be able to connect with existing radars and command-and-control systems, require two or fewer personnel for stand-off launch and flight management, and need minimal and simple maintenance.

The interceptor drones are recent additions to Japan’s massive UAV fleet plan. The ministry had been in talks with drone firm Terra Drone since the company fielded two types of interceptor drones in Ukraine through Kyiv-based startups.

In March, Terra Drone divulged investments in Amazing Drones to field Terra 1, a rocket-type interceptor, and two months later launched fixed-wing variant Terra 2 through Ukrainian defense tech firm WinnyLab.

The feedback is “very much positive,” company CEO Toru Tokushige told Defense News. He said there had been great interest in the interceptors, especially within the Japanese defense ministry.

Drone technology is quickly evolving in Ukraine, affirming the importance of interceptor drones as low-cost alternatives to interceptor missiles, Tokushige said.

Meanwhile, the conflict in the Middle East has shown the lethality of Shahed-like drones, which have been used more extensively than missiles.

The extended reach of the Shahed drones has also raised the stakes in East Asia. The aircraft flew as far as 1,100 miles from Tehran to Tel Aviv, and while battlefield circumstances and geography vary, the distance means such weapons launched in Northeast Asia could reach Japan, South Korea and the Philippines.

“Originally my image of the defense industry is that it’s very much traditional, very much bureaucratic, very slow. But after visiting Ukraine, and also because of the war in the Middle East, everybody understands the value of drones and the value of investing in drones,” Tokushige said.

The Japanese government’s urgent call for proposals comes after reports that the U.S. military’s 38-day Iran campaign under Operation Epic Fury has strained missile stockpiles.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think tank warned of a “near-term risk” munitions shortage after the Iran campaign, which has already delayed U.S. supply contracts with European allies, raising worries that it could also push back Tomahawk deliveries for Japan.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi both denied the Tomahawk conundrum, but Koizumi said the ministry plans to develop more domestic missile systems. This comes on top of a recent production agreement under Operation Supercharge, which will see the U.S. and Japan jointly manufacture interceptor missiles such as the SM-6 and SM-3.

Japan’s defensive umbrella, set to be completed in 2027 after five years, includes fielding standoff capabilities, missile defense networks, and unmanned systems such as drones, ground vehicles, and submarines.

Budget allocated for unmanned defense capabilities alone leaped this year to 277 billion yen ($1.72 billion) from 111 billion yen ($690 million) in 2025.

And the government’s move to increase defense spending up to 3.5% of GDP will likely see more investments in unmanned systems. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party on June 9 approved a proposal to produce some 80,000 drones annually by 2030, though allocations have not been finalized.

“Their intention is to also cooperate with Poland, and to produce in Poland, for the X-BAT program, the first autonomous combat aircraft in the world,” Tusk said at a June 16 press conference in Warsaw. “It’s top-tier technology, a chance for air domination in case of an armed conflict, and an incredibly ambitious project with regard to technology and innovativeness.”

Shield AI unveiled the X-BAT in October 2025, promoting its artificial intelligence-driven unmanned fighter capable of vertical takeoffs and landings as a platform suitable for expeditionary and maritime operations in contested environments.

“At the core of X-BAT is Shield AI’s Hivemind, AI-enabled autonomy software designed to fly platforms in communications-denied, degraded, and limited environments,” the company said in a statement. “Hivemind enables X-BAT to autonomously penetrate contested battlespace, dynamically team with manned aircraft, and execute collaborative tactics without constant communications. This autonomy allows X-BAT to function as a drone wingman or as a standalone asset.”

The latest announcement comes as the Polish government is mulling plans to acquire up to 32 new fighter jets, with some of the evaluated options including: Lockheed Martin’s F-35; the Eurofighter Typhoon, a jet produced by a consortium of Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonardo; and Boeing’s F-15EX.

At the same time, Warsaw is also considering to join the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP) and involve the country’s defense sector in the project to develop a sixth-generation fighter jet. The Polish government is evaluating whether engaging its state-dominated defense industry in the tri-nation initiative, which is spearheaded by Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom, could boost the sector’s capacities and innovativeness, according to Polish Deputy State Assets Minister Konrad Gołota.

Set up in 2015, Shield AI is a venture-backed defense tech company. In addition to X-BAT and Hivemind, its other products include the V-BAT drone.