Army Awards More Than $4 Billion in Counter-Drone Contracts as End-of-Year Procurement Surges

Demand for military drones and counterdrone systems is surging as the Pentagon races to spend appropriated funds before the fiscal year ends—but the defense Department’s centralized drone marketplace is streamlining the process, officials said.

“These contracts are open to all vendors. We’ve seen a significant increase in end-of-year procurement requests across the department,” said Brig. Gen. Matthew Ross, director of the Joint Interagency Task Force 401. “While year-end spending is routine, having a pre-established contract vehicle makes execution far more efficient—and we’re seeing that across all the services.”

The Army awarded 10 indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contracts Tuesday with a combined ceiling of $4.15 billion for systems designed to detect, disable, or destroy enemy unmanned aerial systems. The awards cover command-and-control jammers, sensors, and kinetic weapons.

Seven contractors each received $500 million: Allen Control Systems, Digital Force Technologies, DroneShield, L3Harris WESCAM, Napatree Technology, RADA Technologies, and SRC. Echodyne and PVP Advanced EO Systems received $250 million each, and SmartShooter secured a $150 million contract. The Army noted that only about $50 million had been obligated at the time of award.

The ceiling could reach as high as $7 billion. “To date, we’ve awarded over $5 billion, including earlier contracts with Aerovironment and CACI, these 10 new IDIQs, and additional agreements expected to be signed by the end of next month. The full $7 billion ceiling is active now, and we will continue pursuing new contracts to reach that target,” said Col. Tony Lindh, JIATF-401’s rapid-acquisition lead.

The new enterprise contracts mark a shift in how the Army conducts acquisitions, offering buyers greater flexibility over extended timelines.

“These are software-defined, hardware-enabled platforms, so we need to partner with industry and hold them accountable across the life of the program,” Ross explained.

The Army’s unmanned-systems marketplace has processed roughly $800 million in transactions since launching earlier this year, and counterdrone demand is expected to follow a similar trajectory—particularly among allied and partner nations, said Brent Ingraham, the Army’s chief acquirer for the program.

“About 10 days ago, Australia successfully procured a UAS through the drones.mil marketplace,” Ingraham told reporters. “We still apply the foreign military sales process, but we’ve automated the back-end tools. That cuts the timeline from request to purchase from months down to days.”

“When allies see the U.S. military buying a system, they want in,” Ingraham added. “This marketplace lets us share technology and help smaller businesses scale their operations.”

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