We’re Tracking the Future of Security

Category: Counter-UAS & Airspace Security

Detection and mitigation technologies for unauthorized drones and other low-altitude airspace threats — a fast-growing area of security technology.

  • JIATF-401 Awards More Than $25 Million for Southern Command Counter-UAS Capabilities

    JIATF-401 Awards More Than $25 Million for Southern Command Counter-UAS Capabilities

    The U.S. Department of Defense has awarded more than $25 million in multiple procurements to expand counter-uncrewed aircraft capabilities supporting U.S. Southern Command. The package includes interceptors and electronic-warfare systems intended to provide layered detection, tracking and defeat options against small drones.

    The awards were made through Joint Interagency Task Force 401. The task force said its accelerated acquisition process moved the selected capabilities from an operational requirement to fielding in less than a month. Officials described the work as an effort to improve air-domain awareness and precision defeat options across Southern Command’s area of responsibility.

    The announcement did not provide a complete public list of vendors, quantities or performance specifications. That limits direct technical comparison, but the combination of electronic-warfare and interceptor procurements indicates an emphasis on layered response rather than reliance on a single defeat mechanism. Sustainment, spectrum coordination and operator certification will also influence operational value.

    Why it matters

    Rapid acquisition can shorten the gap between a changing drone threat and deployed defenses. It also increases the importance of integration testing, rules of engagement, operator training and evidence-based evaluation across the full counter-UAS chain.

    Sources

  • Indra Unveils DRIZZLE Interceptor and Mother-Drone Concept for Mass C-UAS Defense

    Indra Unveils DRIZZLE Interceptor and Mother-Drone Concept for Mass C-UAS Defense

    Indra has introduced DRIZZLE, a family of autonomous effectors intended to counter mass drone attacks. The Spanish technology group presented the system at the UNVEX unmanned-systems event and described it as a compact, disposable interceptor that can operate as a hard-kill effector within a wider counter-UAS architecture.

    According to Indra and reporting by Unmanned Airspace, the interceptor is designed to exceed 400 kilometers per hour and has an approximate standalone range of 80 kilometers. The company also showed a mother-drone concept that carries several interceptors before releasing them closer to a threat area, extending the combined mission range to about 130 kilometers. These figures are vendor claims and have not been independently operationally validated.

    Indra said the interceptor uses a company-developed search and detection system to distinguish and lock onto threats. The proposed architecture allows multiple carrier aircraft and disposable effectors to be used against larger raids, while also permitting installation as a self-protection option for selected vehicles or helicopters.

    Why it matters

    The design illustrates a shift from single-target counter-drone tools toward layered systems intended for coordinated raids. Procurement teams will still need evidence on identification performance, command-and-control integration, safety constraints and cost per engagement before comparing it with other counter-UAS technologies.

    Sources

  • L3Harris to Ruggedize VAMPIRE Counter-Drone System for US Navy Littoral Forces

    L3Harris to Ruggedize VAMPIRE Counter-Drone System for US Navy Littoral Forces

    L3Harris Technologies announced on September 8, 2026 that it has been selected to deliver a maritime-ruggedized configuration of its VAMPIRE counter-drone weapon system to the US Navy, aimed at defending littoral combat forces against small unmanned aircraft and uncrewed surface vessel (USV) threats.

    What Is VAMPIRE

    VAMPIRE — Vehicle-Agnostic Modular Palletized ISR Rocket Equipment — is a self-contained, palletized weapon system originally designed to mount on standard vehicle cargo beds, pairing sensors with laser-guided munitions such as Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) rockets to engage small drones and other aerial threats. For the Navy configuration, L3Harris said it is adapting the system to withstand the environmental stresses of maritime and littoral operating conditions.

    “VAMPIRE is a flexible and effective system that meets the unique requirements of the U.S. Navy for littoral C-UxS defense,” said Tony Calderon, President of Targeting & Sensor Systems at L3Harris.

    Capabilities and Integration

    The system is designed to integrate with L3Harris’s Wraith Shield software for layered counter-unmanned-systems (C-UxS) defense, combining detection, tracking and engagement functions across a broader defense architecture. L3Harris has not disclosed a contract value or specific delivery timeline for the Navy variant.

    Why It Matters

    The Navy’s interest in a ruggedized VAMPIRE follows a broader push across the US military to field mobile, vehicle- and vessel-mounted counter-drone systems rather than relying solely on fixed-site defenses, as cheap commercial and militarized small drones proliferate among state and non-state actors. It also follows related moves by L3Harris to mount counter-drone sensors on an uncrewed ground vehicle alongside ARX Robotics, part of a wider industry trend toward distributing counter-UAS sensors and effectors across multiple platform types rather than concentrating them at fixed perimeters.

  • Hensec Launches Portags, a Combined Drone and GNSS Monitoring Platform for Ports

    Hensec Launches Portags, a Combined Drone and GNSS Monitoring Platform for Ports

    German security company hensec secure solutions launched Portags, short for Port Airspace and GNSS Security, an integrated monitoring platform designed to protect ports against airborne threats and disruption to satellite navigation. Rather than treating drone detection and GNSS interference as separate problems handled by separate systems, Portags fuses data from radio-frequency sensors, passive radar and GNSS signal analysis into a single operational view.

    The system watches the airspace above a port for potential drone activity while simultaneously assessing whether GNSS signals in the area are reliable or under jamming or spoofing attack, giving security teams one interface to detect, assess and document both types of threat. The modular platform can be deployed in stationary or mobile configurations across container terminals, tank farms, port entrances and automated facilities, with open interfaces for integration into existing operations centers. hensec developed Portags following a 2025 measurement campaign that identified combined jamming and spoofing activity in the southern Baltic Sea, as regional nations tighten security cooperation against hybrid threats.

    Why it matters

    Drone incursions and GNSS interference at ports have typically been monitored by separate systems, if at all — correlating the two in one platform matters because attackers increasingly combine tactics, and a port that can only see one threat type at a time may miss an incident where GNSS spoofing and an unauthorized drone are part of the same operation.

    Sources

  • Drone Strikes on Saudi Arabia’s East-West Pipeline Expose a Critical Bypass Route

    Drone Strikes on Saudi Arabia’s East-West Pipeline Expose a Critical Bypass Route

    A series of drone strikes hit Saudi Arabia’s East-West Crude Oil Pipeline in the Riyadh and Medina regions on the morning of September 10-11, 2026, causing fires and damage to pump stations and injuring several people, according to the Saudi government. Saudi authorities shut the 1,200-kilometer pipeline as a precautionary measure. No group had claimed responsibility for the strikes as of this writing, and officials said the drones were launched from Iraqi territory amid the wider 2026 Iran war.

    The pipeline had taken on outsized importance in the weeks before the attack: with the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed by Iran, Saudi Arabia had been rerouting roughly 5 million barrels of oil per day through the East-West pipeline to the Red Sea port of Yanbu instead of the Gulf. The strikes cut off a critical bypass route for Saudi crude exports at a moment when alternative shipping capacity was already constrained.

    Why it matters

    The attack illustrates how a single above-ground pipeline corridor can become a single point of failure for a country’s export capacity once its primary maritime route is blocked — pump stations and above-ground infrastructure along long-haul pipelines are difficult to defend comprehensively against low-cost drone strikes.

    Sources

  • Leonardo and Marshall Unveil Containerised Falcon Shield Counter-Drone System

    Leonardo and Marshall Unveil Containerised Falcon Shield Counter-Drone System

    Leonardo and Marshall Land Systems unveiled a containerised configuration of Leonardo’s Falcon Shield counter-uncrewed aircraft system (C-UAS) at the Defence Vehicle Dynamics (DVD) show. The new package integrates Leonardo’s HYAS command-and-control system and Nerio ultra-long-range surveillance and target-acquisition sensor inside a standard ISO shipping container, so the whole detect-and-defeat stack can move by air, land or sea and be set up wherever protection is needed.

    The containerised system keeps Falcon Shield’s open architecture, which can integrate radar, electronic-surveillance sensors and electro-optical/infrared cameras alongside kinetic and non-kinetic effectors, and multiple units can be networked for layered coverage. Falcon Shield is already in service with the UK Royal Air Force — where the system is designated Orcus and has protected major international events — and with the Canadian Armed Forces.

    Why it matters

    Packaging a full C-UAS detect-track-identify-defeat chain into a standard shipping container turns counter-drone protection into something that can be trucked or shipped to a temporary site — an airbase, a border crossing, a major event — and stood up quickly rather than requiring a fixed installation.

    Sources

  • Airwise and UAS Sentry Integrate Remote ID Drone Detection Into Airspace Platform

    Airwise and UAS Sentry Integrate Remote ID Drone Detection Into Airspace Platform

    Airwise Solutions and UAS Sentry announced a partnership integrating UAS Sentry’s Nexus Remote ID drone-detection capability into Airwise’s Nexus operational airspace platform. The integration displays detected Remote ID signals from nearby drones alongside an organization’s own drone operations, airspace data, mission activity, telemetry, FAA services and weather in a single operating picture.

    The companies are targeting critical infrastructure operators, utilities, energy sites, public-safety agencies, airports and industrial facilities that need visibility into unauthorized drone activity in their airspace — not just their own fleet’s operations.

    Why it matters

    Remote ID data gives facility operators a legal, standards-based way to see who is flying a drone nearby without deploying their own detection hardware, which lowers the barrier to basic airspace awareness for sites that can’t justify a full counter-UAS system.

    Sources

  • DroneShield Fields Vehicle-Mounted Counter-Drone System on US Army Infantry Squad Vehicles

    DroneShield Fields Vehicle-Mounted Counter-Drone System on US Army Infantry Squad Vehicles

    DroneShield said it has completed installation and operational acceptance of its DroneSentry-X Mk2 counter-drone system on US Army Infantry Squad Vehicles, reaching the milestone roughly 80 days after the contract was awarded under Joint Interagency Task Force 401. The installation process included fitting the system to the vehicles, a live-drone acceptance test and operator training, establishing what the company calls initial operational capability.

    Unlike fixed-site counter-drone installations, the vehicle-mounted system is designed to give mobile forces detection and electronic-countermeasure capability against drones while on the move. DroneShield said three additional DroneSentry-X Mk2 units are planned under a recent contract modification.

    Why it matters

    Mobile counter-drone capability addresses a gap that fixed installations can’t: forces operating away from a base still face the same low-cost drone threats that have driven counter-UAS investment at airports, stadiums and critical infrastructure sites.

    Sources

  • Italian Startup Exein Hits $1.7B Valuation to Secure ‘Physical AI’ Robots and Drones

    Italian Startup Exein Hits $1.7B Valuation to Secure ‘Physical AI’ Robots and Drones

    Rome-based cybersecurity startup Exein raised $270 million in an oversubscribed funding round, pushing its valuation to $1.7 billion and making it Europe’s most valuable cybersecurity company, the company said this week. The round was led by Headline, with participation from Sofina, Goldman Sachs, the EIB Group’s European Tech Champions Initiative and KfW Capital, among others.

    Exein’s Photon runtime-security platform already secures more than 2 billion connected devices across industrial automation, automotive, energy, healthcare, aerospace and semiconductor manufacturing. The company said it plans to use the new capital to build a proprietary foundation model aimed specifically at securing “Physical AI” systems — industrial robots, drones and autonomous vehicles that increasingly run their own AI models at the edge — with a target release in the first quarter of 2027. Exein reported that annual recurring revenue roughly quadrupled in the first half of 2026 and said it will open a new office in the San Francisco Bay Area as part of a US and Asia-Pacific expansion.

    Why it matters

    As physical-security systems increasingly embed AI models directly on cameras, robots and industrial controllers rather than in the cloud, runtime security for those edge AI systems becomes a new attack surface that traditional endpoint or network security tools were not built to cover.

    Sources

  • NATO Fighter Jets Shoot Down Drone That Crossed Into Lithuanian Airspace From Belarus

    NATO Fighter Jets Shoot Down Drone That Crossed Into Lithuanian Airspace From Belarus

    NATO fighter jets shot down a drone that entered Lithuanian airspace overnight, officials said Tuesday, in the latest of a series of unidentified drone incursions into Baltic airspace since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Lithuania’s National Crisis Management Centre logged the intercept at 01:19 local time near the village of Pratkunai in Kaisiadorys district, roughly 90 kilometers northwest of the capital Vilnius. No injuries or damage were reported.

    Lithuanian authorities said the drone most likely crossed into the country from neighboring Belarus. Italian Air Force Eurofighter Typhoons, which hold NATO’s Baltic Air Policing alert at Siauliai, carried out the intercept. Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda thanked NATO for its “swift response,” and Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys said the intercept sent “a clear message that NATO stands vigilant, committed, and ready,” according to Deutsche Welle.

    Lithuania, which borders both Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave and Belarus, has reported frequent drone incursions since 2022, as have fellow NATO members Latvia and Estonia. The type of drone and its operator had not been established as of Tuesday.

    Why it matters

    Repeated drone incursions along NATO’s eastern flank are accelerating investment in layered counter-UAS detection below the fighter-jet tier, since scrambling manned aircraft for every low-cost drone is not a sustainable long-term response.

    Sources