Lockheed Martin Bets on Autonomous Counter-Drone Systems for Critical Infrastructure

Fortem Technologies started in a Utah facility building a net that catches drones midair. It is a capture system, not a kill system. Autonomous, AI-guided, and designed to lower a threat to the ground intact rather than scatter debris over a stadium or a power plant.

As we wrote in July, passive RF sensing is changing the economics of drone defence — but detection is only half the equation. Identifying a threat is useless without a way to neutralise it before it reaches its target. The autonomous interceptor layer is the piece that was missing.

The infrastructure blind spot

Small drones cost a few hundred dollars. A quadcopter with a modified payload can shut down a refinery, disrupt an airport, or surveil a military installation. The economics are asymmetric: a $200 threat can force a $3.4 million missile response, which is exactly what happened when a US ally fired a Patriot at a commercial quadcopter.

That cost ratio is the structural problem driving the entire counter-UAS market. Traditional air defence systems were designed for manned aircraft and ballistic missiles. They are too expensive, too slow, and too destructive for the drone problem. You cannot fire a $4 million interceptor at every unknown quadcopter near a power plant.

"Fortem has spent years proving our counter-drone technology in conflict zones and at some of the highest-profile events in the world. This contract puts that same capability to work protecting critical infrastructure."— Jon Gruen, CEO, Fortem Technologies

How DroneHunter works

Its system is built around three components. The TrueView radar family handles detection and tracking. The DroneHunter handles interception — it is a drone that catches drones. The Sanctum C-UAS software, supplied by Lockheed, manages the decision loop and mission coordination.

The TrueView R20 radar draws 38 watts at full load, roughly the same as a household light bulb. That power figure matters for persistent deployment at remote infrastructure sites where running a large radar around the clock has real operating costs. It uses active electronically scanned array technology — the same architecture used in fighter jet radars, miniaturized for the drone detection problem.

The DroneHunter itself uses a net-based capture mechanism. Instead of jamming the drone's signal or destroying it midair, the interceptor flies to the target, fires a net, and lowers the captured drone to the ground. No falling debris. No interference with stadium communications or plant control systems.

It is currently the only company authorised to deploy a drone-on-drone kinetic interceptor in US airspace. That is a regulatory moat as much as a technical one.

The Lockheed signal

Lockheed Martin is not just a customer. The defence prime invested $25 million in the company in May 2026, weeks after the initial partnership was announced. That capital comes with engineering integration resources and access to Lockheed's customer base across US and allied defence departments.

The integration is not theoretical. In June 2026, Lockheed tested its Sanctum C-UAS system against a Shahed-style attack drone at a range in Arizona, using the company's R40 radars for detection and tracking. The test was a live-fire demonstration of the layered architecture the partnership is building — detection from Fortem radars, battle management from Sanctum, kinetic effect from Lockheed's JAGM missile.

The broader pattern is clear: prime contractors are moving from evaluating counter-drone startups to embedding them into their product roadmaps. Lockheed backing the company is the same strategic logic that led General Dynamics, Epirus, and Kodiak AI to unveil the Leonidas autonomous high-power microwave vehicle in March 2026.

Market structure and who else is in it

The counter-UAS market is fragmenting into tiers. At the top, primes like Lockheed and General Dynamics are buying or integrating. In the middle, companies like Dedrone and D-Fend Solutions sell detection-first platforms with software-defined roadmaps. At the base, a wave of early-stage startups is building cheaper, faster interceptors.

Perennial Autonomy, formed by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, won a $500 million Pentagon contract for its Merops AI-powered interceptor drones in May 2026. The unit cost of a Merops is around $15,000. That is less than half the price of the Shahed drones it is designed to intercept. Askari, a Georgia Tech spinout, raised $1.7 million and is already working with DoD customers.

The funding data confirms the shape. Fifteen rounds in five quarters, with a heavy concentration at the top: CHAOS Industries raised $510 million, Epirus raised $250 million, and the rest of the market splits into smaller, earlier-stage bets. The NATO Innovation Fund co-led TYTAN Technologies' Series A in early 2026, signalling that institutional defence capital in Europe is now flowing directly into counter-drone startups.

What happens to the cost curve

The economics of drone defence are improving but still unfavourable. A Shahed-style drone costs $30,000–$50,000. A Patriot missile costs $3.4 million. A Merops interceptor costs $15,000. A DroneHunter costs around $160,000 per unit. The industry is aiming for interceptor costs below $10,000 — the point where defending infrastructure becomes cheaper than attacking it.

That threshold has not been reached yet. But the direction of travel is clear: the interceptor-to-threat cost ratio has improved from 17,000:1 (Patriot vs. quadcopter) to roughly 5:1 (Merops vs. Shahed) in under two years. That compression is driven by AI targeting, commercial off-the-shelf components, and autonomous operation that removes the human from the engagement loop.

🔮 Can autonomous counter-drone systems scale to protect critical infrastructure at national level?

Development scenarios