Military and Defence Drone Companies
30 companies that sell military drones, autonomy and defence data software, or counter-drone systems to defence customers. They range from large defence groups such as General Atomics and Lockheed Martin to start-ups building strike and interceptor drones. 22 are headquartered or co-headquartered in the United States. The rest are European, Israeli and Australian. Each company sits in one group below, though some sell across several, and each row links to a sourced company profile.
Grouping is Drone Intelligence's classification, not a ranking. For valuations see drone companies; for tickers see publicly traded drone companies; for programmes and contracts see the defence procurement tracker. This page describes companies and markets; it does not advise on selecting or sourcing systems.
Where the categories are heading
Drone Intelligence assessment: the three groups below are converging. Shield AI, listed here under autonomy, agreed on 5 November 2026 to buy Echodyne, whose radars are built into hundreds of counter-drone and security systems, in a deal valued at up to $5.3 billion. Anduril, listed under platforms, already sells its Lattice command software alongside its aircraft and holds the first task order under the US Army's $20 billion counter-drone contract vehicle. If the Echodyne deal closes in early 2027 as expected, the more useful distinction between these companies will be how much of the chain, from sensing to command, each can supply as one system, rather than which group it sits in. Counter-drone specialists that sell a single layer will increasingly be judged on how well they plug into those larger systems.
Sources: Shield AI, Shield to acquire Echodyne (5 November 2026); Breaking Defense, Army awards Anduril counter-drone task order as first in new $20B contract vehicle (March 2026). Details on the Shield AI and Anduril profiles.
Military drone and strike platform makers.
Privately held defence group whose aeronautical arm, GA-ASI, makes the MQ-9 family and the FQ-42A Collaborative Combat Aircraft now in US Air Force production.
US defence prime (FY2025 revenue $75.0 billion). In uncrewed aircraft it is self-funding the Vectis combat drone at Skunk Works after missing CCA Increment 1 production.
Publicly listed defence and commercial UAS prime. Loitering munitions, ISR, and counter-UAS, expanded into space and directed energy through the BlueHalo acquisition.
Defence technology company building autonomous platforms and the Lattice AI command-and-control platform. The most heavily capitalised non-traditional defence firm in the US.
Diversified US defence supplier whose unmanned-aircraft business includes jet-powered target drones and the Valkyrie tactical aircraft.
Pioneer of long-endurance small-tactical UAS. ScanEagle has more than 100,000 operational flight hours with US DoD and international customers. Archer Aviation agreed on 9 August 2026 to acquire Insitu, Wisk and SkyGrid from Boeing, subject to customary closing conditions.
German developer of software-defined autonomous reconnaissance and multi-domain unmanned systems, and one of Europe's most highly valued defence-technology companies following its July 2026 Series D.
European maker of long-range surveillance drones. Its AR5 was selected for the British Army's Project Corvus to replace Watchkeeper.
Berlin loitering-munition maker positioning as Europe's first venture-scale autonomous strike prime, anchored by a Bundeswehr order for its Virtus system.
British drone company that won Gauntlet I of the Pentagon's Drone Dominance Program with a strike drone built with Ukraine's Skyfall.
US manufacturer of attritable first-person-view (FPV) strike drones, built on a China-free supply chain and selected as a primary FPV supplier to the US Army under the Purpose-Built Attritable Systems programme.
Venture-funded US defence manufacturer building a portfolio of low-cost autonomous strike and counter-drone systems around a vertically integrated, distributed manufacturing model.
Largest US-origin autonomous drone manufacturer; dual-use enterprise, public safety, and defence platforms.
Publicly listed autonomous-defence platform. A roll-up of ISR, counter-UAS, and drone-in-a-box infrastructure, scaled through the $875.8 million DZYNE Technologies acquisition.
Builder of autonomous surface vessels for defence and commercial use, from the 24-foot Corsair to the 180-foot Marauder, now investing in its own shipyards.
Autonomy, command-and-control and mission software.
Defence autonomy software company. Hivemind enables GPS-denied autonomous flight using on-board AI rather than external positioning signals.
Software company whose platforms, Gotham, Foundry, Apollo and its Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP), integrate data for government and commercial customers. Builds no aircraft.
Open-source autonomy software. Builds the PX4-based flight stack that powers low-cost commercial drone hardware at defence scale, including AI-enabled drone swarms.
Drone-swarm autonomy software company, first used in combat in Ukraine in April 2024, listed on Nasdaq in March 2026. It licenses software to drone makers rather than building airframes.
Defence software company built by former intelligence-community staff. Its Decrypt platform organises and translates foreign-language information for military and intelligence users.
Israeli autonomy and human-machine teaming specialist, listed on the NYSE since 4 September 2026 as XTEND AI Robotics. XOS operating system fuses operator intelligence with machine autonomy. Combat-proven via Israeli forces; multiple Pentagon attack-drone contracts, including a $40.5 million STRIKER order in October 2026.
Counter-drone defence: detect, track and defeat.
Germany's largest defence prime and a leading European air-defence supplier. Its gun-based Skyranger and Skynex systems have become NATO's reference answer to the low-cost drone threat.
High-power microwave (HPM) counter-drone systems. Leonidas platform is the leading non-kinetic solution for defeating drone swarms at distance.
Eric Schmidt-backed maker of drone interceptors and strike drones, proven against Shahed-type drones in Ukraine, now holding a $500 million Pentagon counter-drone contract.
Defence technology scale-up. Coherent distributed networks (CDN) for sensing, detection, and counter-UAS effects. $1 billion total raised; $4.5 billion valuation in November 2025.
Pure-play counter-UAS. Publicly listed Australian-headquartered specialist in AI-based detection and electronic-warfare drone defeat solutions for terrestrial, maritime, and airborne platforms.
Counter-UAS platform combining radar detection (TrueView) and autonomous interceptor drones (DroneHunter). Lockheed Martin strategic investor; sole-source US Army counter-drone supplier.
Tactical passive radar for counter-UAS. Sensor network architecture provides drone detection without active emissions, with $120M+ raised across three rounds since 2021.
Israeli counter-drone specialist. EnforceAir uses RF cyber-takeover techniques to safely neutralise rogue drones without collateral damage or collateral disruption to legitimate airspace.
AI-based airspace security platform. Acquired by Axon Enterprise (Taser maker) in October 2024. Now the counter-drone arm of one of the largest public-safety technology companies in the US.
The Counter-UAS Contract & Procurement Tracker
67 checked counter-UAS award lines through 30 September 2026, the capital and acquisition ledger, and a 43-vendor matrix with each product description sourced. Compiled and reconciled, not scraped. Instant PDF.
Related maps & trackers