US Army counter-drone contracts award $4.15B to 10 firms

The short version

Ten companies won counter-drone contracts with combined ceilings of $4.15 billion under the Pentagon's Domestic Shield effort.
Seven firms, including DroneShield, L3Harris WESCAM and SRC, each got a $500 million ceiling over about three years.
The figures are maximums; actual spending comes through orders, such as SRC's first radar order of $10.24 million.
The Army requires open standards so gear from different suppliers works together, and more awards were expected by the end of October.

Quick read · 1 min

The US Army has awarded ten counter-drone contracts with combined ceilings of $4.15 billion under Domestic Shield, a Pentagon effort to protect US bases and critical sites from cheap drones.

Seven firms, including DroneShield, SRC and L3Harris WESCAM, each got a $500 million ceiling. Echodyne and PVP Advanced EO Systems got $250 million each, and Smart Shooter $150 million. These are maximums over roughly three years, not cash paid up front. SRC's first actual order was worth $10.24 million.

The gear includes radars, cameras, smart rifle scopes and remote weapon mounts.
Suppliers must follow open standards so their systems work together.
The wider framework can grow to $7 billion.

More, smaller awards were expected by the end of October 2026.

The US Army just opened a $4.15 billion shopping list for gear that can stop cheap drones over American soil, and ten companies now hold a ticket to sell into it. The catch is that most of that money has not actually been spent yet.

Why should you care? The contracts decide which radars, cameras and anti-drone weapons will guard US military bases and other high-priority sites and critical infrastructure. Small, inexpensive drones have become a real threat to those places, and the way the Pentagon is buying the defenses is meant to keep costs down for taxpayers.

Who won the US Army counter-drone contracts

Ten firms won US Army counter-drone contracts under Domestic Shield, a Pentagon effort to protect sites inside the United States from unmanned aircraft. Joint Interagency Task Force 401 (known as JIATF-401, the Pentagon unit that coordinates the fight against drones) runs the program with the Army’s acquisition office.

Seven companies each received a contract with a $500 million ceiling:

DroneShield
SRC
L3Harris WESCAM
RADA Technologies
Allen Control Systems
Napatree Technology
Digital Force Technologies

Two radar and camera makers, Echodyne and PVP Advanced EO Systems, each got $250 million. Smart Shooter, known for computerized rifle sights, received $150 million. Added together, that is $4.15 billion, and the wider framework can reach a maximum of $7 billion across all awards.

Close-up of an equipment shipment or hardware ready for deployment

Why $4.15 billion is a ceiling, not a payout

These are indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contracts, usually shortened to IDIQ. In plain terms, they set up a pre-approved way for the government to order products from a company over a set period, up to a maximum value. The government is not obliged to spend that full amount.

Many of the deals run for roughly three years. SRC, a not-for-profit research and development company, offers a useful example of what happens next. Its $500 million contract started with a first order worth $10.24 million for one Gryphon R1440 radar and two Gryphon R1540 radars, plus installation, integration and training.

So the headline figure is the most these companies could earn. What they actually receive depends on how many orders the military, federal agencies and allied partners place through the system.

What the money buys: radars, scopes and robotic guns

The contracts cover several layers of drone defense, each with a different job. Some equipment spots incoming drones, some tracks them, and some helps knock them down.

Compact radars, like SRC’s Gryphon family and Echodyne’s EchoShield, detect and follow small drones. Echodyne says its radars already sit inside hundreds of counter-drone systems in more than 40 countries.
Smart rifle scopes, the specialty of Smart Shooter, help a soldier with a standard rifle hit a small, fast-moving drone.
Robotic weapon stations are gun mounts that can be aimed and fired remotely.
Long-range tracking cameras let operators see and identify a drone from a distance.
Radio sensing and jamming, part of DroneShield’s offering, picks up a drone’s control signals and can disrupt them.

Software ties it all together, through command-and-control systems that show operators what each sensor sees and help them decide how to respond.

Why the Army wants gear from many suppliers

The Army is requiring open architecture, meaning products must follow shared technical standards so equipment from different companies can plug into existing defense networks and work together. That avoids vendor lock, where a buyer is stuck with one supplier because its parts only work with each other.

Brent Ingraham, the Army’s assistant secretary for acquisition, logistics and technology, said the multi-vendor setup breaks that kind of lock and lets new technology slot straight into current networks. He also said continued competition between big defense firms and newer commercial players should give taxpayers better value.

Brig. Gen. Matt Ross, who leads JIATF-401, has said there is no single answer to the drone threat, which is why the program buys layers of protection from several companies rather than betting on one.

What this means for people at home

The urgency comes from recent events. During this year’s conflict between the US and Iran, Iranian drones damaged US military sites and equipment across the Middle East, often by sending large numbers of cheap drones at once. By one estimate from the Congressional Research Service, Congress’s in-house research arm, the US lost or saw damage to 81 of its aircraft and drones, a bill that could reach $3.3 billion.

Cheap drones are hard to stop with expensive missiles, because the defense can cost far more than the attack. Domestic Shield is meant to give US sites cheaper, layered options instead. For most people, the visible effect may be more radars and cameras around bases and critical infrastructure in the coming years.

It also matters for anyone following government drone contracts as a business story. Several winners, such as DroneShield and Echodyne, are smaller specialist firms rather than traditional defense giants, and officials expected more awards below the current threshold before the end of October 2026.

Quick answers

How much did the Army pay for counter-drone systems?

The ten contracts have combined ceilings of $4.15 billion, which is the most that can be spent. Actual payments come through individual orders, such as SRC’s first order worth $10.24 million.

What is Domestic Shield?

Domestic Shield is a Pentagon effort led by JIATF-401 to protect military bases, critical infrastructure and other important sites in the United States from drone threats.

Can other companies still join?

Yes. The framework is designed to stay open, and further, smaller awards were expected before the end of October 2026.

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