L3Harris Selected by U.S. Navy for Counter-Drone Systems

AeroVironment has received a US$464.8 million US Army production contract for the Enduring High Energy Laser program, marking its first major US military laser production deal. The award covers directed energy weapon systems intended for fielded use, moving the company beyond its core uncrewed aircraft focus into operational high energy laser deployments within US defense programs. The contract supports AeroVironment's push toward higher margin product franchises such as LOCUST, Titan and Switchblade, even as the company spends heavily on new facilities and remains free cash flow negative in FY27. It does not resolve the company's existing profitability challenges or recent losses in its Space, Cyber and Directed Energy segment. Investors will be watching AeroVironment's combined funded and unfunded backlog, currently flagged at roughly US$2.8 billion, in the next few quarterly updates to see whether directed energy and counter UAS awards are building a more durable pipeline or simply offsetting cancellations elsewhere.

Federal Ammunition, Mossberg and Palladyne AI Corp. announced the joint development of SwarmShot, a modular autonomous airborne counter-unmanned aircraft system designed to turn compatible drones into reusable air-to-air interceptors operating as a collaborative kinetic defensive swarm. SwarmShot will combine Federal's specialized counter-UAS shotshell ammunition, a lightweight Mossberg weapon module purpose-engineered for airborne operation, and Palladyne AI's IntelliSwarm autonomy system, which pairs BRAIN avionics with SwarmOS collaborative autonomy software. The system will first be developed as a modular mission add-on for Gremlin-X, Palladyne AI's Group 1 quadcopter mini-bomber, after which the companies plan to offer SwarmShot to other manufacturers as an integration kit for compatible unmanned aircraft. Federal will lead ammunition design and terminal-effect optimization, drawing on its recent U.S. Army counter-UAS ammunition contract, while Mossberg leads the airborne weapon module and Palladyne AI leads UAS integration, fire control, terminal-intercept autonomy and multi-interceptor coordination. The effort is a defensive application of Palladyne AI's predictive autonomy collaborative swarming capability, recently deployed with the U.S. Army at Project Convergence Capstone 6 and other Army exercises. Development schedules, potential customer engagements and financial terms were not disclosed.

NextNav Inc. announced a strategic partnership with AiRANACULUS to advance integrated sensing and communications across NextNav's licensed lower 900 MHz spectrum. The collaboration combines NextNav's ground-based 5G-powered 3D PNT network with AiRANACULUS's advanced signal processing technology to expand NextNav's drone sensing and long-range early warning capability for counter-unmanned aircraft systems while reducing the infrastructure required for wide-area sensing coverage. The two companies will validate long-range ISAC capabilities using NextNav's 5G PNT Network and AiRANACULUS's hardware and software stack, with initial testing focused on extended-range threat detection to identify and track drone activity within NextNav's 5G PNT Network footprint in Santa Clara County, California. Deepak Joseph, Vice President of Product at NextNav, said safe airspace management is critically enhanced by long-range detection capabilities that provide early warning and scale cost effectively, while AiRANACULUS Founder and CEO Dr. Apurva N. Mody said applying digital beamforming and advanced receiver signal processing to low-band 5G enables detection of smaller targets at much greater distances. NextNav said results from the collaboration will support ongoing assessments of performance and applicability across critical infrastructure and national security use cases.

Ondas announced on Wednesday that it launched Dronebuster REACH, a long-range counter-drone system, with the first unit contracted to the Office of Naval Research. REACH uses electronic attacks to disrupt drones at longer ranges and higher power, extending the company's existing Dronebuster product line, and integrates with Ondas's detection and command-and-control systems for a layered counter-drone setup. Ondas said its Dronebuster systems have been deployed in more than 50 countries, with over 3K units delivered. On the market side, the stock traded near $7.50.

DroneShield secured access to a three-year U.S. government contract vehicle worth up to $500 million, sending its shares up 9% to a one-month high. The Australian counter-drone technology company said it was awarded an Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity contract supporting Joint Interagency Task Force 401's Domestic Shield initiative, with a maximum value of $500 million over three years. The company stressed that the $500 million is the maximum value of the contract vehicle rather than an immediate order or revenue award, and that the vehicle provides a streamlined procurement pathway for rapid deployment of counter-unmanned aircraft systems across the United States. The award expands DroneShield's exposure to U.S. government procurement and follows a $24.9 million JIATF-401 contract announced in June, which included an initial $19.3 million award plus options. DroneShield has also been installing its DroneSentry-X Mk2 systems under the earlier JIATF-401 program, with acceptance by the U.S. military announced earlier this month.