The potential clients for technology such as electronic jammers and interceptor drones tested at the Brétigny-sur-Orge site are no longer just governments, police and armies.

Private firms and state entities across Europe that operate critical infrastructure want to strengthen their defenses, with some utilities asking for authorization to shoot drones down themselves. From Paris to Berlin, governments are taking note.

They are worried that hybrid warfare or a drone attack could knock out power to millions of people — as has happened frequently in Ukraine after Russian strikes.

“It is a theoretical, and increasingly a practical, possibility that there could be heating outages this winter due to hybrid attacks,” Kristian Ruby, secretary general of European energy body Eurelectric, told Reuters.

Some European governments are responding by starting to give firms powers traditionally confined to the military. Interviews by Reuters with over 30 company executives, officials and drone experts meanwhile show the technology to detect and bring down drones is maturing faster than the rules on who may use it.

Approaches vary widely across Europe and legal uncertainties remain, including over who has the right to order a response to a drone threat. Bringing down a drone could cause injury or death to people on the ground or damage property, raising questions for companies about liability and accountability.

“Defenseless”

France is among countries that have led the way. Its parliament passed a law in August allowing approved operators of critical infrastructure and contractors to detect, jam and shoot down drones near designated facilities.

The law passed by the French parliament in August responded to a wave of drone incursions over critical and military sites, including flights over the Ile Longue nuclear submarine base near Brest in northwestern France in December 2025.

France wants a newly expanded list of sensitive sites deemed of vital importance equipped by 2027, a senior French official involved in the plans told Reuters, asking not to be named because details of the plan are not yet public.

“We were defenseless in the face of the (drone) threat,” the official said, adding that concerns had been growing over the last decade as unmanned aerial vehicles became more accessible and more common.

The French government wants to give operators of critical infrastructure such as state-owned utility company EDF and state-owned railway company SNCF a catalogue of approved systems ranging from electronic jammers to interceptor drones, depending on different environments and situations.

Confirming important elements of the plan outlined by the French official, Systematic Paris-Region, which runs the government testing program at Brétigny-sur-Orge, said evaluations launched this summer had so far catalogued three systems integrators — which combine different computer systems into a unified whole — and 17 counter-drone systems.

It said assessments were continuing and work was underway to accelerate procurement from among those solutions.

France’s defense ministry said the law passed in August would help strengthen capabilities to counter the threat, though it said it could speak only for the critical infrastructure under its authority. EDF and SNCF declined comment.

Who can bring down a drone?

The discovery of an explosives-laden drone near a Ukrainian cargo plane at Germany’s Leipzig/Halle airport in August underlined how far the risks have spread.

Germany blamed Russia for the incident. Moscow denied it was behind it, and has repeatedly denied carrying out hybrid attacks in Europe, many of which have been in countries that support Kyiv in Russia’s war in Ukraine.

But concerns are growing that national authorities cannot respond fast enough to protect widely dispersed infrastructure against such attacks, and that the damage caused by relatively cheap drones could bring hefty repair costs.

In Germany, where counter-drone operations remain a policing function, the interior ministry told Reuters it was reviewing how critical infrastructure operators and third parties could be legally involved in active counter-drone measures.

In September, Austria announced plans to give similar powers to critical infrastructure operators, including large energy firms. Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner told a press conference that the state could not protect every site on its own.

Poland has gone further. Operators told Reuters they have deployed counter-drone systems and trained with military and police units. Drone-restricted zones have been established around critical energy infrastructure, and designated security units working for operators have been authorized to destroy, disable or take control of drones entering them.

But two sources at energy transmission companies on NATO’s eastern flank told Reuters that effective intervention still requires more assurances, and perhaps a judicial precedent, on who bears responsibility for collateral damage.

Without that certainty, they said, operators of critical infrastructure could remain reluctant to neutralize drones because bringing one down could itself cause injury or costly damage.

Built for recovery

Having powers to bring down drones would be a change of approach for companies across Europe.

Executives, officials and energy analysts told Reuters that utilities have spent years hardening networks and preparing to restore disrupted services, rather than preventing attacks.

Leonhard Birnbaum, chief executive of German energy firm E.ON, said in September that operators must assume some attacks will succeed, rather than plan on stopping all of them. The company operates about 2,720 substations across Germany, he said.

Lithuania is building a fortified substation near its border with Russia as part of plans by the Baltic states and Poland to improve their defenses that include constructing bunkers, installing anti-drone nets and building up stocks of hard-to-replace equipment for critical parts of the energy grid.

Poland’s state-owned transmission operator PSE patrols parts of its about 16,500-km (10,250-mile) high-voltage network by helicopter and is preparing more powerful aircraft to help protect an undersea power link to Sweden.

Yet relatively inexpensive drones are challenging such defenses. Essential equipment such as large transformers can take years to replace, while even a successful repair can leave infrastructure out of service for months.

Not all utility operators are seeking a bigger role in defending themselves.

Asta Sihvonen-Punkka, chief executive of Finland’s national power grid operator Fingrid, told Reuters that responsibility for countering threats around critical infrastructure should remain with Finnish authorities and armed forces.

Any move to give such powers to utility operators would be “a very, very big change” requiring careful legal consideration, she said.

Jari Stenius, head of security of Finnish utility Fortum, said he was content for energy companies to focus on producing energy while police and military authorities handled security threats.

Technology ready, rules are not

Security officials and counter-drone technology firms say systems are becoming increasingly automated because operators cannot station specialist teams at every site.

Modern counter-drone systems combine sensors, command-and-control software and countermeasures into a single chain designed to identify, classify and respond to threats within seconds.

Several companies told Reuters that uncertainty over who can authorize a response has slowed investment in the latter stages of that process. France is therefore trying to automate the process as much as possible, said the senior French official involved in France’s plans.

The official said security workers at utilities should eventually be able to detect a threat and launch an automated response at the press of a button, because having operators trained to use military-grade solutions at every location was unrealistic.

German defense company Rheinmetall told Reuters the biggest hurdle for civilian operators was often the delay between detecting a drone and deciding whether to deploy a countermeasure, as legal responsibilities remain fragmented.

Rheinmetall said interest from private infrastructure operators in counter-drone systems was rising sharply.

The company said it was conducting workshops, site surveys and infrastructure assessments for operators and was preparing for what it described as a “very fast-growing” market segment.

(Reporting by Maria Rugamer and Leo Marchandon in Gdansk, Florence Loeve in Paris and Marek Strzelecki in Warsaw.)

The F-22 completed airborne tactical command and in-flight control of a YFQ-44A Fury earlier this month, the Air Force announced.

The fighter jet’s pilot served as an airborne “quarterback” and gave high-level directives to an Anduril-made Fury CCA. The unmanned, semi-autonomous aircraft’s onboard autonomy software interpreted and executed the directives in real time, per the release, performing in-flight maneuvers and simulated combat tasks.

“This achievement demonstrates what is possible when we are aligned with industry on a shared imperative: delivering capability to the warfighter at unprecedented speed,” Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink said in the announcement.

“We are driving urgency into every part of acquisition from rapid integration and flight learning to disciplined assessment, so we can turn promising technology into combat capability at the pace the threat demands,” he continued.

Personnel from the 412th Test Wing, 422nd Test and Evaluation Squadron, 309th Software Engineering Group, Experimental Operations Unit, F-22 System Program Office and the CCA Software Autonomy and Teaming Branch collaborated during the demonstration.

The service plans to use data from this event to inform software integration, developmental testing and further CCA concepts, the announcement says.

This test follows other milestones in the CCA development after the service announced its intention to have 500 combat-ready, semi-autonomous systems by 2032, with an overall fleet size of 1,000.

The Anduril-made Fury executed its first live-fire test by conducting an end-to-end, beyond-line-of-sight strike against a simulated target during a live-fire test at Edwards Air Force Base, California, in July.

Alongside Anduril’s CCA, the service has made strides with General Atomics’ FQ-42A Vengeance, which was delivered to Creech Air Force Base, Nevada, last month to continue regular test and evaluation operations.

Anduril has yet to announce which Air Force base will house Fury, but Creech airmen conducted an Agile Combat Employment exercise earlier using the defense company’s aircraft, allowing airmen to complete sorties and build foundational tactics and procedures that will mold how CCA are integrated into the force.

According to Monday’s announcement by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, which manufactures the aircraft, the Arizona Guard will receive eight Gray Eagle 25Ms by September 2027 and four more by the end of 2029.

Patrick Shortsleeve, the company’s vice president of Defense Department strategic development, called the aircraft “an integral part of the Army Aviation team” as it works closely with advanced autonomy and manned rotary-wing systems to outpace threats.

“The Gray Eagle has a proven record of performance with 1 million hours of safe operations, including automatic takeoff and landing capability,” he said. “When you factor in its extensive capabilities, the Gray Eagle is a cost-effective UAS that excels as an enabler for Fires, Maneuver, Network, and Intelligence operations.”

The National Guard’s goal, according to General Atomics, is to create a UAS company in each of its eight infantry divisions. The Arizona Guard is part of the 40th Infantry Division, which covers 11 other states or territories and is headquartered in California.

“Once fully operational, the Gray Eagle 25M can deploy in support of global missions for Combatant Command (COCOM) commanders and defend against threats in the Western Hemisphere,” the company said, adding that currently, Congress has funded three Gray Eagle 25M guard units.

The Gray Eagle 25M, the newest edition of the decades-old Gray Eagle UAS, made its first flight in December 2023. That same month, the federal government awarded General Atomics a $389 million contract to develop the system.

According to the company, the “M” in the 25M stands for “modernized,” as the aircraft has been upgraded to use an open architecture design, advanced datalinks and a newer propulsion system.

The changes enhance its ability to modify capabilities, resist electronic threats and provide a greater payload capacity and longer flight time than its predecessor.

Within the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, or 2CR, new basics include unmanned aerial systems operation and employment, counter-UAS systems and unmanned ground vehicle usage, service officials said during a Monday discussion at the Association of the U.S. Army annual meeting, titled “Project Flytrap—Accelerating Offensive Maneuver through Data-Centric Kill Web.”

Project Flytrap is an Army counter-unmanned aerial systems initiative and multinational exercise, which has leveled up from the individual soldier to the squadron level with multiple iterations.

The most recent exercise, Project Flytrap 5.0, took place in Lithuania and was concluded earlier this year with partner nations, including the United Kingdom and Australia, and was led by the Army’s V Corps. The countries integrated and tested more than 50 industry-provided technologies, launched effects and unmanned ground vehicles and tested against a live opposing force.

“The American way of war is centered on maneuver, and counter-UAS cannot remain tied to static defense,” Col. Timothy Price, commander of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, said in a Tuesday release. “Project FlyTrap ensures we maintain mobility and offensive survivability in a highly contested, opaque operational environment.”

The 2nd Cavalry Regiment is expanding Project Flytrap into a battalion-level operational capability, adapting from small-unit field trials into tactical employment connected with operational objectives aimed at breaking through drone-saturated frontlines on Europe’s Eastern Flank.

“As we’re training our soldiers for the multi-domain operations, or multi-domain breeds, we talk about the new basics inside of 2CR,” Command Sgt. Maj. Jesse Clark, 2nd Cavalry Regiment senior enlisted leader, said during Monday’s discussion.

“With the new basics, we need to focus on sUAS, counter-UAS, camouflage for electromagnetic signatures … and how we’re going to do that so soldiers understand how to camouflage themselves with those spectrum options,” he continued.

Officials listed the previous basics to include topics such as marksmanship, map reading and navigation, radio etiquette and UAS and jamming reaction to contact.

Clark said the service needs to have disciplined unit training management in which personnel, time and equipment are included to ensure soldiers are proficient at the new basics. One way to complete this is to have a series of expert badges.

“Everyone needs to know these basics because it’s going to be required whether you’re on the frontline or you’re back in the rear because we’re going to have UAS all over the place,” Clark said.

The U.S. military has strived to incorporate UAS and counter-UAS training across all branches, with new units in the Marine Corps and the Defense Innovation Unit aiming to recruit service members with first-person-view drone experience to participate in the Pentagon’s Drone Dominance program.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth addressed AUSA attendees at the Project Agincourt panel on Wednesday, sharing that the Pentagon is requesting roughly $50 billion in reconciliation funding to support the push to scale autonomous and robotic systems.

This request is part of an effort to make the technology available in far greater numbers.

The figure is separate from the Pentagon’s fiscal 2027 budget request, which includes $53.6 billion for the Drone Dominance initiative. That request covers $16.9 billion for unmanned-system procurement, $14.4 billion for counter-unmanned systems, $13.5 billion for contested logistics, $4.5 billion for collaborative autonomy and $4.3 billion for institutional systems and personnel. The budget request does not establish that the reconciliation funding Hegseth cited is the same money or that it is dedicated entirely to drone purchases

Hegseth characterized the funding as a one-time investment rather than a recurring annual allocation, intended to accelerate the development and production of autonomous and robotic systems.

“Ultimately we will be dealing with hundreds of thousands of one-way attack systems this year and into the millions in years to come at a pace that this department’s never ever seen before.”

The Defense Secretary said the Pentagon must make it easier for new companies to compete in a defense market long dominated by established contractors and costly platforms. Traditional defense firms remain important, he said, but the department also needs lower-cost systems that can be manufactured at scale.

The Army’s Drone Dominance program offers a concrete measure of that ambition. In a December 2025 announcement, the Army said a $1 billion initiative would fund approximately 340,000 small unmanned aircraft systems for combat units over two years. The service said it expected to deliver tens of thousands of drones in 2026 and hundreds of thousands by 2027.

Acting Army Secretary Adam Telle said the service is broadening access to its programs for companies outside the traditional defense industrial base. The Army, he said, must make room for new entrants while continuing to work with established suppliers.

Telle also described plans to coordinate the Army’s autonomous-systems efforts while distributing capabilities to operational units. The service is developing an approach that incorporates drones, autonomous ground systems, autonomous fires and autonomous lift into future combat operations.

“We have an MOS in the Army, 390A, where warrant officers could keep the speciality and the skills over the duration to teach our soldiers how to do robotics,” Telle added.

Expanding access to Army test ranges is another part of that effort, Telle said. Greater access gives developers more opportunities to test systems and receive feedback from military users. He also described efforts to share lessons across the force rather than have individual units and organizations solve the same problems independently.

Hegseth said the department must remove bureaucratic barriers that slow the adoption of new technology, telling the panel, “I want you to tell me which rules can be signed away.” He urged officials to identify rules and directives that could be changed without involving new legislation to accelerate progress.

Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius, the deputy prime minister and defense minister of the Netherlands, highlighted the Dutch defense sector’s ties with Ukraine in the field of drones.

“Our armed forces are really training, as we speak, every day with the knowledge the Ukrainians have, because … they have the most innovative Army in Europe,” Yeşilgöz-Zegerius said on Oct. 12. “And what we are doing at the same time … is investing in our own defense industry. Because it was also, of course, due to a lack of spending, not that strong anymore. And in Europe we have that issue.”

Meanwhile, while investing in drone and counter-drone systems, NATO allies bordering Russia are also procuring heavy gear for their land forces and seeking to secure a significant share of manufacturing work for their domestic defense industries.

Lithuanian Defense Minister Robertas Kaunas told Defense News at the forum that the country’s planned acquisition of six-wheel-drive armored personnel carriers from Finland’s Patria is an example of how allies can work together on major purchases for their land forces. The vehicles are to support the Baltic state’s National Division, its main combat unit.

“One of our intentions is not only to assemble, but also be involved in the R&D process,” Kaunas said. “The National Division is important because, together with our allies, including the United States, Germany, Poland, we can block our adversaries near the front line, near our borders, and then, of course, use drones, modern types of weapons to break them.”

Kaunas said that combining the two categories of military assets is crucial, as demonstrated in Ukraine.

“Ukraine adapted tanks with additional defense anti-drone capabilities and used them as a great source of protection for their soldiers, pushing Russians back near the front lines,” the Lithuanian minister said.

Dovilė Šakalienė, a Lithuanian lawmaker and the country’s former National Defence Minister, told Defense News that European allies must sign “smart contracts” that reflect the rapidly changing battlefield reality in Ukraine, as exemplified by Lithuania’s 2024 deal to buy 44 Leopard 2A8 tanks for the country’s military, which she signed while in office.

“We need to sign smart contracts which give us the delivery of the newest technology,” Šakalienė said. “In the Leopard agreement, we also included in a very clear way a condition that the newest version of anti-drone defense systems is going to be included. Not the ones which would be ready in 2024, but the ones that will be ready at the time of the assembly of these tanks. For the development of such technology, three years is eternity.”

Despite European nations’ rapid expansion of drone procurement, allies should continue to invest in heavy equipment such as tanks and armored vehicles for their land forces, Šakalienė said.

“Massive land maneuvers cannot be completed only with drones,” she added.

Meanwhile, as Poland, the forum’s host, is making efforts to increasingly shift from the role of a buyer of foreign military gear to exporter of such goods, foreign defense groups competing for major orders are investing to expand their manufacturing footholds in the country. For U.S. companies, Poland’s drive to expand its domestic production capacities comes as many industry players are already planning to boost their capabilities in the country.

“One of the things I can say about Poland is that the workforce here is exceptional. We’ve already got 1,000 employees here in Poland. And we’re looking to have much more than that,” Vince Logsdon, vice president for international business development at Boeing Defense Space and Security, told Defense News.

Building on the 2024 deal to sell 96 AH-64E Apache attack helicopters to Poland under a deal worth around $10 billion, the producer is now offering its CH-47 Chinook aircraft to the country’s armed forces, pitching it as a complementary platform to the Apaches that can support troop movements and battlefield logistics.

“The Chinook is our offering, it has proven itself throughout the world as a vertical lift, heavy lift helicopter. It has lots of operators throughout the world, and one of the things I have seen with our CH-47 offering is that most operators that acquire the Apache, they ultimately also acquire the CH-47,” Logsdon said. “It’s a perfect combination in terms of extending the battle space for the Apache.

Representatives of Canada, Croatia, Egypt, Japan, Kuwait, Morocco, Albania and Panama signed a statement of intent to join the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Marketplace during a ceremony Tuesday at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

Retired Gen. Robert Brown, president and CEO of AUSA, said that the signing brought the total number of participating nations to 33. The marketplace was launched in March 2026 with nine European signers and continues to grow across regional allies and partners.

“With today’s signing, the marketplace is now truly a global effort,” said Brent Ingraham, assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology. “It’s not a concept or a pilot program or some distant future. It is live.”

Since the marketplace was stood up, it has processed $800 million in transactions.

More recently, the Army awarded counter-UAS contract vehicles worth $7 billion through the marketplace, Ingraham said. The Army also operates a C-UAS Marketplace developed and operated by the Joint Interagency Task Force 401 (JIATF 401) for digital procurement of counter-drone systems.

The initiative comes in response to a rapidly evolving drone threat in which inexpensive drones have forced U.S. and allied militaries to answer with expensive missiles, Ingraham said. He emphasized a collaborative approach with partners and layered drone defense, including sensors, command and control, electronic warfare, interceptors, directed energy and rapid adaptation.

“There is no silver bullet,” Ingraham said. “None of us can do it alone.”

The marketplace is intended to deliver validated commercial capability to U.S. and partner forces at speed. Soldiers can browse and purchase UAS equipment based on specific tactical needs, evaluate system performance data and provide operator feedback.

The digital platform operates as a government-to-government framework to create a “fast lane” for foreign military sales of equipment that has been pre-vetted for cybersecurity and exportability, according to Ingraham.

Acting Secretary of the Army Adam Telle, who attended the signing ceremony, said the drone marketplace was “connecting soldiers directly with builders and removing the bureaucratic middlemen.” Telle’s comments follow a Monday address to AUSA where he touted Army efforts to streamline acquisition.

The acting secretary further emphasized that the global drone marketplace builds on the Army’s demand for open architecture systems.

Telle said the Army needs to elevate open architectures beyond the tactical systems to “the strategic level,” saying the drone marketplace is a “great step forward” in sharing tactics, techniques, procedures and equipment with partners.

The Italian air force is due to acquire six of the drones, which are derived from Baykar’s TB-3 and are being assembled in Italy by LBA Systems, a joint venture between Baykar and Leonardo.

The Astore Levante is due to carry Leonardo sensors, but at its unveiling at the Farnborough air show in July it was presented alongside Turkish armaments, including Roketsan’s MAM family of guided bombs and Baykar’s KEMANKES-1 mini cruise missile.

Speaking in Rome on Monday, Italian air force chief Gen. Antonio Conserva said he was not ruling out other suppliers of armaments. “At the moment we have not made choices, the natural armament is Turkish but we also have activities with MBDA and small Italian industrial groups,” he said.

Conserva confirmed the new drone was set to be certified by the end of 2026 or in early 2027. European certification is deemed a prerequisite for selling the drone in Europe.

Mounting European arms will also boost sales efforts in Europe. The Italian air force will initially order three systems, each containing two drones, but Conserva said, “We will see if we go on to expand the capability.”

The Astore Levant will replace the Predator MQ1 flown by the air force, Conserva added. As well as being flown on ISR missions and providing armed support for troops, the drones will also be used for training drone pilots, he said.

Before the launch in July of the Astore Levante, the Italian navy said in April it was eyeing the TB-3 as a carrier-borne drone to fly off its Cavour carrier, which also hosts Italy’s F-35Bs.

The TB-3 is already in service on board the Turkish amphibious assault ship TCG Anadolu. Another TB-3 customer, Indonesia, is expected to base the drone on the Garibaldi, a carrier it has purchased from Italy.

Conserva spoke to reporters on Monday at a conference at the HQ of the Italian air force in Rome which gathered air force and industry officials to discuss the future of warfare.

Asked by Defense News about the prospect of Germany possibly joining the GCAP sixth generation fighter program set up by Italy, Japan and the UK, Conserva said he was in favor.

“We are talking about a strategic partner,” he said.

“We would need to find a political and industrial deal. Germany is a great country. We have already collaborated with them on the Tornado which will retire next year, and the Eurofighter which is the backbone of our national defense and deterrence. Whatever emerges I will view favorably,” he added.

During the ceremony, 10 warrant officers were formally introduced as 390A robotics technicians. They will now serve as subject-matter experts on all aspects of using robotic and autonomous systems, including programming, building and repairing them, plus integrating them into combat.

The 390A inauguration is the result of a lengthy process that has been in the works since 2024, when U.S. Army Special Operations Command announced its aim to train experts in using autonomous systems.

The Army deemed it necessary to introduce robotics as a separate specialization to avoid overburdening special warfare operators with having to master an additional, highly complex skill set, in addition to their existing knowledge.

“What we’ve determined is it cannot be an additional task or an additional hat for someone on the ODA,” Chief Warrant Officer 5 Jerry Brown, command chief warrant officer for 1st Special Forces Command (Airborne), said in a release, adding that the new specialists will be able to leverage their specific field of knowledge within robotics to help the force as a whole.

The new 390A technicians will be assigned to tactical formations at the brigade and group level. As experts in autonomous warfare, they will advise commanders on how best to deploy autonomous systems during operations.

They will also be required to think quickly in the field to instantly propose solutions to any problems that may arise with robotics in the field, and to use their expertise to come up with innovative ways of using drones to reach objectives.

To prepare them for this role, 390A candidates are required to complete a 19-week course, where they must build drones from scratch that do not require GPS or radio frequencies to navigate.

The Army stated in a release that robotic systems assembled during the course will rely primarily on artificial intelligence and machine learning to navigate to targets.

Fiber optic cables also provide a way for drones to reach targets while being invulnerable to external signal interference, such as jamming. Known as “tethered drones,” cable-linked unmanned aircraft systems can use artificial intelligence for targeting and navigation while having a direct physical connection to their operator.

At the time of publication, the Army had not responded to questions about whether 390A candidates would be learning to build and field tethered drones.

“The Army is implementing changes in force structures, adding a multi-domain task force equipped with autonomous long-range fires,” Gen. Christopher LaNeve, Vice Chief of Staff of the Army, said in a statement.

“These technical experts will help command teams understand integration across the force. We are scaling this across the Army.”

The companies first teamed up earlier this year to pair Nammo’s munitions with Vector’s unmanned aircraft. The expanded agreement aims to scale that work to help address what the companies describe as a growing need for drones that can deliver more than just explosive payloads.

Andy Yakulis, Vector’s chief executive officer and co-founder, called the partnership “highly complementary” because together they produced a system that reflects “the realities of how warfighters will employ them.”

“The battlefield is demanding unmanned systems that can do more than simply carry a payload,” he said, adding that their systems will be produced at scale and “continuously improved based on real-world requirements.”

According to Vector’s website, the Utah-based company launched in 2024 with three veterans, including Yakulis, as well as the founder of Teal Drones, which was later acquired by Red Cat and awarded millions in military contracts for short-range reconnaissance drones.

Vector also supplies a High Voltage Electronic Safe Arm Device, or HV-ESAD, that serves as the electronic interface between the drone and its munition. According to both companies, the device enables the safe integration and controlled use of compatible munitions.

Vector has a drone listed on the Defense Department’s Blue List, which includes unmanned aircraft systems that have undergone the department’s relevant assessment and approval process for military use.

The company also placed in the top five in the latest round of the Defense Department’s Drone Dominance program, a billion-dollar initiative to procure affordable small drones that can be manufactured at scale.

Andy Schreiner, the president and general manager of Nammo, said the “expanded agreement will benefit warfighters defending freedom globally” because it combines “Nammo’s proven expertise in munitions, energetics, and advanced manufacturing with Vector’s unmanned systems capabilities.”

Nammo, a Norwegian defense manufacturer with U.S. operations headquartered in Arizona, specializes in ammunition, shoulder-fired weapons and rocket motors. According to its website, its products range from small-arms ammunition to tank rounds.

“We are bringing together complementary strengths to accelerate the development and production of integrated solutions that can evolve with warfighter requirements,” Schreiner said.