What are the top startups in the counter-UAS market?
In our counter-UAS market deck, you will find everything you need to understand the market
SUMMARY
The top startups in the counter-UAS market are Anduril, Fortem Technologies, Origin Robotics, Epirus, Allen Control Systems, Hidden Level, Echodyne, TYTAN Technologies, Frankenburg Technologies and Alpine Eagle, with Anduril the clear overall private-market leader and Fortem the strongest pure-play specialist.
The market has moved well beyond experimental counter-drone projects. The Pentagon’s FY2026 request alone put $3.1 billion behind counter-UAS, while CBO estimates show that protecting even a modest number of military sites with layered defenses quickly becomes a multibillion-dollar program.
The competitive field is also consolidating fast. D-Fend Solutions, Sentrycs, Dedrone and MARSS’ defense business have all been acquired, which means several former startup leaders now sit inside larger defense or public-safety companies.
That consolidation makes the remaining independent specialists more interesting. Fortem stands out because it owns radar, command software and an autonomous interceptor, while also showing unusually broad military, civilian and critical-infrastructure adoption.
Europe is producing credible challengers rather than just prototypes. Origin Robotics has moved fastest, with BLAZE orders and deliveries across multiple countries, French selection after a competitive evaluation and a production model designed around much larger quantities.
The most important technical split is no longer simply jamming versus interception. Fiber-optic FPV drones and increasingly autonomous aircraft are pushing buyers toward guns, autonomous interceptors, high-power microwaves and other effectors that still work when the radio link disappears.
Epirus is the strongest counter-swarm technology bet in the startup group. Its high-power microwave approach becomes more attractive as target density rises because one engagement can potentially affect many drones instead of spending a separate interceptor on each one.
Allen Control Systems is moving unusually quickly from a clever idea into real programs. Bullfrog’s combination of machine vision, autonomous fire control and cheap ammunition gives it a compelling close-range cost story, and recent Marine Corps, Army and special-operations integration work makes the company much harder to dismiss as a demo-stage startup.
Hidden Level and Echodyne show that a counter-UAS leader does not need to build the weapon. Sensing can become a large standalone business when the same radar or passive-detection layer gets embedded across many different defense architectures.
There is no single best counter-UAS technology across every site. Guns look strongest for close-in economics, high-power microwave for dense swarms, reusable interceptors for sensitive civilian areas, and low-cost guided interceptors as threats get faster or farther away.
The ranking can still move quickly. Fortem has the best specialist position today, but Origin, Epirus and Allen Control Systems all have plausible paths to move higher if current integrations turn into larger recurring production orders.
This market map, featured in our counter-UAS market deck, highlights top companies and startups in the counter-UAS market
Why is the counter-UAS market suddenly getting so big?
Counter-UAS has become a major defense market because governments are now budgeting billions for persistent drone defense while the threat itself keeps getting cheaper, more numerous and harder to jam.
The clearest number comes from the Pentagon. Its FY2026 request included $3.1 billion for counter-UAS across the armed services, including roughly $1.3 billion for the Navy alone. That already puts counter-drone spending in a very different category from the small experimental programs that shaped the industry a few years ago.
A July 2026 Congressional Budget Office analysis shows how quickly the numbers grow once militaries try to defend real sites. CBO estimated that protecting one representative military installation with a properly layered system would cost about $74 million upfront and at least $5 million every year to support. Apply the same architecture to 100 installations and the bill reaches roughly $7.4 billion upfront plus $500 million annually. CBO also counted 824 U.S. military installations, although many would obviously need smaller configurations.
Civilian demand is opening up at the same time. New U.S. rules implementing the SAFER SKIES Act now allow certified state, local, tribal and territorial agencies to conduct certain counter-UAS operations. Airports, prisons, stadiums, borders and critical infrastructure are therefore becoming much more realistic customers.
Ukraine explains much of the urgency. The country is currently producing drones by the millions, while fiber-optic FPV drones, autonomous navigation and rapidly changing radio protocols keep shortening the useful life of older countermeasures.
| Market indicator | Current evidence | What it tells us |
|---|---|---|
| Pentagon FY2026 counter-UAS request | $3.1B | Counter-UAS is already a major procurement category |
| CBO estimate for one layered military site | ~$74M upfront | Serious protection requires several technologies |
| Annual support for that site | $5M+ | The market includes substantial recurring spending |
| CBO estimate for 100 comparable sites | ~$7.4B upfront | Base protection alone can support a large industry |
| U.S. local counter-UAS authority | Recently expanded | Civilian and public-safety demand can now grow faster |
Who actually counts as a counter-UAS startup today?
The current counter-UAS startup list is much shorter than old market maps suggest because several of the strongest independent companies have already been bought.
D-Fend Solutions is the clearest example. Motorola Solutions completed its $1.5 billion acquisition only days ago. Motorola said D-Fend had thousands of deployments across more than 30 countries, had grown revenue by more than 50% annually for three straight years and expected about $185 million of revenue this year. A company with that scale would have ranked very high in this article, but D-Fend now belongs to Motorola.
The same cleanup removes Sentrycs, which Ondas acquired for $224.6 million, Dedrone, which Axon bought in 2024 at an acquisition-date value of roughly $503 million, and MARSS' defense business, which EOS recently acquired to combine its NiDAR command software with EOS guns and laser systems.
Anduril creates a different problem. The company remains private and venture-backed, yet it has become a huge, diversified defense contractor rather than a normal counter-UAS startup. We still include Anduril because leaving it out would give a false picture of who is winning. We simply separate the overall leader from the specialist startups chasing it.
That leaves a more useful competitive set: Fortem Technologies, Epirus, Allen Control Systems, Hidden Level, Origin Robotics, Echodyne, TYTAN Technologies, Frankenburg Technologies and Alpine Eagle.
As this chart shows, and as featured in our counter-UAS market deck, search interest in counter-UAS has been trending upward
Is Anduril actually winning the counter-UAS market?
Yes. If we include giant private defense companies, Anduril currently has the strongest overall counter-UAS position.
The biggest reason is procurement. The U.S. Marine Corps awarded Anduril a potential 10-year, $642.2 million Installation Counter-small UAS program to deliver, install and sustain counter-drone defenses at Marine installations worldwide. Ten companies competed for that contract. Winning it gave Anduril something much more valuable than another demonstration: a long-term position inside a real military program.
Anduril also covers unusually large parts of the kill chain. Lattice handles command and control. Spyglass and Spark provide radar. Wisp provides passive infrared sensing. Pulsar handles electronic warfare. Anvil provides kinetic interception, while Roadrunner addresses larger and faster aerial threats. A customer can therefore start with Anduril's software and keep adding Anduril hardware around it.
That footprint is still expanding. The Marine Corps recently moved toward putting Anduril's Pulsar-Lite electronic-warfare system on Amphibious Combat Vehicles because those vehicles currently lack an adequate counter-UAS kill chain.
Anduril's advantage is that it already controls the architecture linking sensors, software and effectors. We would therefore call it the overall private-market leader today, even if it now looks more like a new-generation prime contractor than a conventional startup.
If you want more recent data on this point, please see our latest counter-UAS market report.
Is Fortem Technologies the best pure-play counter-UAS startup?
Yes. Fortem Technologies is currently the strongest independent counter-UAS specialist because it combines real interception, its own radar, command software and unusually broad customer exposure.
Fortem's SkyDome system connects TrueView radar with command-and-control software and DroneHunter, an autonomous interceptor that catches drones with a net. That last part gives Fortem a useful position in places where shooting down a drone creates another problem on the ground.
The U.S. government has recently given Fortem several different routes to much larger deployments. DroneHunter became the first system purchased under Replicator 2, the Pentagon effort designed to accelerate deployable counter-drone technology. The initial purchase covered only two systems, so the quantity is still tiny. Being first through that process is meaningful anyway.
Fortem then secured a place as a prime contractor on the Department of Homeland Security's new five-year counter-UAS IDIQ. The initial ceiling exceeds $1 billion across participating vendors, and Fortem was the only small business selected for the hardware and software track. Every DHS component can now place orders directly for Fortem equipment.
Lockheed Martin gives us another kind of validation. Lockheed selected Fortem hardware for its Sanctum counter-UAS ecosystem, invested $25 million in Fortem and has already used Fortem radar in a successful Sanctum engagement with a JAGM missile.
The customer mix is also unusually wide. Fortem has disclosed allied military orders in Europe and the Middle East, World Cup security work, critical-infrastructure deployments and U.S. military procurement. No other independent specialist currently combines that breadth with ownership of its own sensor, software and interceptor.
This chart, featured in our counter-UAS market deck, shows annual VC investment in counter-UAS startups
Is Origin Robotics already Europe's top counter-UAS startup?
Yes. Origin Robotics has moved much faster than we initially expected, and BLAZE now has the strongest multinational procurement record among Europe's young counter-UAS startups.
The Belgian order alone deserves attention. Belgium committed roughly €50 million to BLAZE interceptor drones, while Janes later reported that the country was preparing a framework worth more than €1.5 billion for additional BLAZE procurement. A framework ceiling does not equal guaranteed revenue, but it tells us Belgium is thinking in quantities far beyond a normal pilot.
Latvia, Estonia and Belgium began receiving their first batches earlier this year. Sweden subsequently joined the customer list. France then selected BLAZE after a competitive evaluation by the French defense procurement agency, with deliveries beginning and plans for local assembly in France.
Origin has therefore crossed several milestones in quick succession: national orders, physical deliveries, multinational adoption, competitive selection by a major European military and industrial localization. Mass production started in late 2025, and Origin has said it designed the production system around thousands of interceptors rather than artisanal batches.
That sequence puts Origin ahead of European rivals with strong financing but fewer disclosed deliveries. For now, anyway.
| Country | Current BLAZE position | Why we care |
|---|---|---|
| Latvia | Deliveries underway | First national customer and integration pathway |
| Belgium | ~€50M procurement, larger framework being prepared | First clearly material disclosed order |
| Estonia | Deliveries underway | Shows repeatability beyond one buyer |
| Sweden | Receiving BLAZE systems | Expands adoption into another Nordic military |
| France | Selected after DGA competition, local production planned | Strongest independent technical validation so far |
If you want more recent data on this point, please see our latest counter-UAS market report.
Is Epirus the strongest startup for stopping drone swarms?
Yes. Epirus has the most convincing startup technology for situations where dozens of drones arrive together and the defender cannot afford one interceptor for every target.
Leonidas uses high-power microwaves to disrupt onboard electronics across an area. A missile battery normally spends another interceptor each time another target appears. High-power microwave can potentially hit several drones during the same engagement.
Epirus demonstrated the idea at unusual scale by defeating 61 of 61 drones during a live-fire event, including 49 drones in one swarm engagement. We still treat that as a controlled demonstration rather than combat proof, but very few counter-UAS startups have publicly shown anything comparable.
The military has kept funding the technology after testing it. The Army awarded Epirus $43.55 million for two second-generation IFPC-HPM systems after receiving four earlier systems. Defense News recently reported that those first systems had also been deployed experimentally to the Middle East and Pacific.
The Marine Corps then awarded Epirus $11 million to deliver HAVOC, a vehicle-mounted high-power microwave system derived from the ExDECS prototype previously delivered to the Marines. The new version is expected to have roughly three times the power of ExDECS, better range and ruggedization, plus autonomous target handling.
Investors have already put more than $550 million into Epirus. The remaining question is how quickly high-power microwave moves from a specialized layer into routine field deployments.
This chart, featured in our counter-UAS market deck, shows why DroneShield is winning in counter-UAS
Is Allen Control Systems the fastest-rising counter-UAS startup?
Yes. Allen Control Systems has probably improved its market position faster than any other U.S. counter-UAS startup over the past year.
The Bullfrog idea is easy to understand: use computer vision, precision robotics and autonomous fire control to make existing guns accurate enough to shoot down drones. The M240 version uses standard 7.62mm ammunition, while larger variants extend the concept to weapons such as the M2.
The economics immediately attract attention. ACS says Bullfrog can bring the cost per kill as low as about $10 in some configurations. That number comes from the company and depends heavily on how many rounds an engagement requires, but even a much higher real-world figure would still compare favorably with using expensive guided interceptors against cheap quadcopters.
The procurement evidence has caught up with the idea. Axios reported that ACS already holds more than $120 million in U.S. government contracts. The Marine Corps recently selected the Bullfrog M240 for integration with L-MADIS under an initial contract worth roughly $6.2 million. The Army Applications Lab has separately selected Bullfrog for integration work across five combat vehicles, while another contract covers U.S. special-operations maritime platforms.
ACS also raised $200 million in a Series B at a $2.2 billion post-money valuation. Six months ago, the company still looked mostly like an impressive autonomous-gun startup. Today, Bullfrog is being integrated into existing military platforms and air-defense systems.
If you want more recent data on this point, please see our latest counter-UAS market report.
Can Hidden Level and Echodyne become counter-UAS leaders without building weapons?
Yes. Hidden Level and Echodyne show that the sensing layer can support a major counter-UAS business even when another company ultimately destroys the drone.
Hidden Level has become the clearest example. Its passive radar and RF systems monitor low-altitude airspace without depending entirely on active radar emissions. That is useful when troops want awareness without constantly advertising the position of every sensor.
The Pentagon recently awarded Hidden Level a $100 million Other Transaction Authority contract after its passive radar performed strongly during a government technology-readiness exercise. Hidden Level had already raised $100 million across two financing rounds within roughly six months and counts the Army, Air Force, NASA and other government organizations among its customers.
Echodyne is following a slightly different route through compact active radar. The U.S. State Department awarded the company a $35.3 million contract for counter-drone radars, support and training after an earlier deployment of roughly 40 Echodyne radars across two countries. The government's procurement notice explicitly said those earlier systems had been successful enough that replacing them would create millions of dollars of reinvestment and about a year of retraining.
Echodyne is also getting pulled into other companies' systems. Trust Automation chose EchoShield as a primary radar in its Small-Unmanned Air Defense System under a U.S. Air Force IDIQ with a $490 million ceiling.
Hidden Level and Echodyne therefore have a credible path to becoming standard sensing suppliers across many different counter-UAS architectures.
This chart, featured in our counter-UAS market deck, shows annual funding in counter-UAS startups
Which counter-UAS startups have the strongest real procurement today?
Anduril leads by a wide margin, while Fortem, Allen Control Systems, Hidden Level, Epirus and Origin Robotics form the clearest second group based on actual government buying rather than funding announcements.
We have to be careful with contract values here. A $1 billion IDIQ ceiling can be shared across multiple vendors and generate far less than $1 billion for any one company. A $40 million production contract can be much more concrete. We therefore give more weight to disclosed orders, deliveries and program integration than to headline ceilings.
Anduril's potential $642.2 million Marine Corps installation program remains the largest clearly attributable counter-UAS program among these private companies.
Hidden Level's recent $100 million Pentagon OTA is the strongest single specialist sensing award we found. ACS has more than $120 million of U.S. government contracts according to Axios, although those contracts span several Bullfrog programs rather than one counter-UAS order. Epirus has the $43.55 million Army Generation II contract plus the newer $11 million Marine Corps HAVOC work.
Origin's Belgian procurement gives the European group its strongest disclosed order at roughly €50 million, with actual deliveries across several countries making the number more convincing.
Fortem is harder to score using one contract value because its strength comes from the number of procurement routes. Replicator 2, DHS, allied militaries, Lockheed Martin and sensitive civilian deployments all point toward repeatability. As seen above, the DHS contract vehicle itself has a billion-dollar-plus ceiling, but Fortem's eventual share is still unknown.
| Company | Best procurement evidence we found | Our confidence in real scale |
|---|---|---|
| Anduril | Up to $642.2M USMC installation program | Very high |
| Allen Control Systems | $120M+ in U.S. government contracts reported by Axios | High, though spread across programs |
| Hidden Level | $100M Pentagon OTA | High for a sensing specialist |
| Origin Robotics | ~€50M Belgian BLAZE procurement plus multinational deliveries | High and rising quickly |
| Epirus | $43.55M Army award plus $11M Marine Corps HAVOC contract | High, with production scale still developing |
Which counter-UAS startups still work when jamming fails, and which have the best economics?
Allen Control Systems, Epirus, Fortem and autonomous-interceptor startups such as Origin Robotics currently look strongest when electronic warfare stops working, but they win in very different engagement ranges and cost structures.
Fiber-optic FPV drones make the problem obvious. Instead of receiving commands over radio, the aircraft trails a thin fiber cable back toward the operator. Traditional RF jamming loses much of its value because there is no normal control link to disrupt. More autonomous drones can create a similar problem by navigating after communications disappear.
Origin's BLAZE and Fortem's DroneHunter deal with that problem physically. Once their sensors identify and track the aircraft, the interceptor does not need the hostile drone to cooperate electronically. TYTAN is pursuing the same basic logic with its interceptor systems.
ACS takes a more traditional route. Bullfrog uses machine vision and gunfire, so a fiber cable or autonomous flight computer does little to protect the target once the weapon has a clean track. ACS says Bullfrog can bring the cost per kill as low as about $10 in some configurations. The real figure will vary, but machine-gun ammunition still sits in a completely different price bracket from sophisticated guided missiles.
Range is the tradeoff. The Bullfrog M240's published maximum effective range against its target class is around 800 meters, which makes the system particularly attractive for close-in defense.
Epirus attacks the onboard electronics themselves. Leonidas can therefore remain relevant against fiber-optic and autonomous drones even when conventional electronic warfare cannot touch the communications link. Its economics become especially interesting as the number of incoming drones rises because one high-power microwave engagement can potentially affect many targets.
Fortem occupies another niche. DroneHunter is much more complicated than a bullet, but the interceptor is designed for reuse and physically captures its target. Around a refinery, airport or stadium, avoiding an uncontrolled crash can easily matter more than minimizing ammunition cost.
Europe's younger companies are attacking the same problem from another direction. Origin and TYTAN want autonomous interceptor drones cheap enough to use in volume, while Frankenburg is trying to make guided missiles affordable enough to stock in much larger quantities.
There is no universal cheapest solution. Guns look strongest at close range, high-power microwave becomes particularly attractive against dense swarms, reusable interceptors fit sensitive sites, and low-cost guided interceptors make more sense as the target gets faster or farther away.
This chart, featured in our counter-UAS market deck, compares the main business model options for counter-drone defense system companies
Which counter-UAS startup is best for airports, stadiums and critical infrastructure?
Fortem Technologies currently has the strongest independent startup position for sensitive civilian sites because DroneHunter can physically remove a drone without relying on gunfire or broad electronic disruption.
That difference gets much more important over a crowd. Shooting a quadcopter down above a battlefield is one problem. Doing the same thing above an airport terminal, packed stadium or electrical substation creates a second risk immediately.
Fortem has already built relevant experience around this exact use case. The company has worked on major sporting-event protection, recently disclosed a multimillion-dollar order linked to World Cup venues and is deploying with Lockheed Martin for critical-infrastructure protection. Its new DHS position should make federal civilian deployments easier to buy as well.
Cyber takeover systems provide another attractive answer, although the two strongest independent specialists have now disappeared into larger companies. Motorola's D-Fend and Ondas' Sentrycs can identify compatible drones and take control of them without filling the surrounding spectrum with indiscriminate jamming.
The recent D-Fend transaction gives us a rare commercial benchmark. Motorola is paying $1.5 billion for a company expected to produce roughly $185 million of revenue this year, with thousands of deployments in more than 30 countries. That is unusually strong evidence that civilian and mixed-use counter-UAS can support a large business.
If you want more recent data on this point, please see our latest counter-UAS market report.
Are TYTAN, Frankenburg and Alpine Eagle ready to join the top tier?
TYTAN Technologies, Frankenburg Technologies and Alpine Eagle are serious counter-UAS companies now, but we still want to see more large production orders before ranking them alongside Fortem, Epirus, ACS or Origin.
TYTAN has the strongest financing base of the three. Its €30 million Series A, co-led by Armira and the NATO Innovation Fund, brought total funding to €46 million. The company is scaling interceptor manufacturing across Germany, Ukraine and allied markets. Its relationship with KNDS also goes further than a generic partnership: TYTAN's Interceptor-S has already been integrated into a BOXER RCT30 configuration.
Frankenburg may have the most ambitious manufacturing thesis. The Estonian company developed its Mark I guided interceptor from concept to a successful live-fire interception of a moving Class III drone in 13 months. It has since raised €30 million, opened a missile assembly site in Riga and signed industrial agreements with companies including Airbus, BAE Systems, PGZ, Hanwha Aerospace, Babcock, Milrem Robotics and Colt CZ.
That list is impressive, although integrations and memoranda still need to turn into recurring missile orders.
Alpine Eagle is smaller and gets less attention, yet its Sentinel counter-UAS architecture has already reached the Bundeswehr, Ukraine and additional European customers. The company raised €10.25 million in seed funding and has been expanding its ability to produce interceptor systems.
TYTAN currently looks best positioned to scale through established vehicle programs, while Frankenburg has the highest upside if its low-cost missile thesis converts into large orders. Alpine Eagle remains credible but earlier-scale.
This chart, featured in our counter-UAS market deck, breaks down revenue by customer segment in the counter-UAS market
So what are the top counter-UAS startups right now?
Anduril is the clear overall private-market leader, while Fortem Technologies is the strongest pure-play counter-UAS startup; Origin Robotics, Epirus and Allen Control Systems now make up the next tier.
We rank Anduril first because it already controls a broad counter-UAS architecture and has a major Marine Corps program behind it. At this point, though, Anduril competes more like a new-generation prime contractor than a conventional startup.
Fortem takes the top specialist position. The combination of radar, command software, autonomous interception, military customers, civilian use cases and integration with Lockheed Martin gives it several ways to scale.
Origin moves up to third in our current ranking. The €50 million Belgian order, deliveries across several European countries, French competitive selection and move into mass production give BLAZE unusually strong evidence for such a young company.
Epirus ranks fourth. Leonidas may be the most technically differentiated counter-swarm product in the startup market, and recent Army and Marine Corps work keeps pushing high-power microwave toward a deployable weapon.
ACS takes fifth and could move higher very quickly. A $2.2 billion valuation, more than $120 million in reported government contracts and integration into L-MADIS make Bullfrog one of the fastest-moving products in defense tech today.
Hidden Level ranks sixth because the recent $100 million Pentagon contract changes how seriously we should treat a sensing-only company. Echodyne follows at seventh with strong federal radar procurement and a growing role inside other companies' counter-UAS systems.
TYTAN, Frankenburg and Alpine Eagle round out the top ten. They have credible technology and increasingly serious industrial partners, but their disclosed production orders remain behind the leaders for now.
| Rank | Startup | Where it is strongest today | Our judgment |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Anduril | Integrated counter-UAS architecture | Clear overall private-market leader |
| 2 | Fortem Technologies | Full-stack specialist, civilian + military defense | Best pure-play counter-UAS startup |
| 3 | Origin Robotics | Autonomous interceptor drones | Strongest European breakout |
| 4 | Epirus | High-power microwave and counter-swarm defense | Most differentiated swarm solution |
| 5 | Allen Control Systems | Autonomous gun systems | Fastest-rising U.S. challenger |
| 6 | Hidden Level | Passive counter-UAS sensing | Strongest emerging passive-sensor specialist |
| 7 | Echodyne | Compact radar | Best picks-and-shovels radar position |
| 8 | TYTAN Technologies | Autonomous drone interceptors | Strong financing and integration path |
| 9 | Frankenburg Technologies | Low-cost guided missiles | Highest industrial upside among the emerging group |
| 10 | Alpine Eagle | Airborne sensing and interception | Credible European challenger, still earlier-scale |
If you want more recent data on this point, please see our latest counter-UAS market report.
OUR METHODOLOGY
There is no obvious leaderboard for the counter-UAS market. Companies compete across very different technologies, disclose different levels of commercial and procurement data, and can change position quickly as new contracts, deployments and acquisitions reshape the field. We therefore broke the ranking into the dimensions that best show where each company actually stands today.
We looked across recent procurement, real-world deployment, customer adoption, technical position, integration into larger defense programs and evidence of production scale. No single dimension determined the ranking. The companies that moved highest were the ones where several kinds of evidence pointed in the same direction.
Confirmed orders, deliveries, repeat adoption and integration into active programs carried more weight than fundraising announcements, demonstrations, partnerships or the theoretical ceiling of a contract vehicle. This matters especially in counter-UAS, where a billion-dollar IDIQ can be shared across several vendors and may translate into far less revenue for any one company.
We also compared companies within the role they are trying to win. Counter-UAS includes sensors, command software, electronic warfare, autonomous interceptors, guns, high-power microwaves and integrated systems, so we looked first at how strong each company appeared within its own part of the stack and then at whether that position was translating into broader adoption.
Recent acquisitions were treated as part of the market structure rather than the startup ranking. D-Fend Solutions, Sentrycs, Dedrone and MARSS' defense business were removed from the independent-startup list after their acquisitions, while Anduril remained included because it is still private and venture-backed even though it now competes more like a new-generation prime contractor.
For market size and demand, key references included the U.S. Department of Defense FY2026 budget briefing, the Congressional Budget Office analysis of layered counter-UAS costs, and the Federal Register implementation of expanded counter-UAS authority under the SAFER SKIES Act.
For company position and procurement, we relied on primary government and company disclosures where possible, including the Marine Corps award to Anduril, Lockheed Martin's Fortem investment and Sanctum integration, Epirus' Marine Corps HAVOC award, Hidden Level's procurement disclosures, and the U.S. State Department procurement notice covering Echodyne radar deployments.
For the European group, important sources included the Belgian government's BLAZE procurement announcement, the Latvian Investment and Development Agency on France's selection of Origin Robotics, the NATO Innovation Fund on TYTAN Technologies, and Frankenburg Technologies' disclosures on its interceptor, financing and manufacturing expansion.
We used secondary reporting when it added specific information that was not available in a primary source, particularly Axios' reporting on Allen Control Systems' financing, valuation and U.S. government contract total. Across the ranking, we gave more weight to evidence that had already turned into procurement, deployment or production than to announcements about what a system might eventually do.
This chart, featured in our counter-UAS market deck, shows how drone detection system technology has evolved over time
