The Army Prices Its Next Counter-Drone Missile Under $150,000

A published unit-price target of under $150,000 is the defining line in this RFI. Breaking Defense frames the effort as a search for an affordable counter-drone missile, and the requirement makes that concrete by setting price as a requirement alongside range and altitude rather than an evaluation preference.

The extended-range figures, more than 16 kilometres initially and more than 25 kilometres as the objective per Defense News, put NGCM above the engagement envelope of the cheapest counter-drone effectors, which is this briefing's reading of why a missile is being specified at all: the shortest-range end of the defeat problem is being addressed separately by guns and directed energy, efforts covered in Drone Intelligence's 50mm XM913 and ThinKom Alecto briefings.

The missile must be compatible with the Coyote launcher with minimal to no modifications, per Defense News. On this briefing's reading, that constraint points to reusing existing launch infrastructure rather than buying a new system around a new missile, and it narrows the design space for respondents accordingly.

A new missile constrained to an existing launcher competes on the round rather than the architecture, on the same reading. Breaking Defense reports NGCM is separately defined from the Low-Cost Interceptor programme, so the Army is running more than one interceptor effort in parallel.

The RFI's response deadline passed on 20 August 2026. What exists in public is the requirement set as reported by Defense News and Breaking Defense: price, seeker, launcher, altitude, range and launch-response figures. What does not exist in either account is a solicitation, an award, a timeline to fielding, or any named respondent.

The published thresholds also carry the usual caveat of early requirements: they are what the Army is asking industry about, not what a contract will eventually specify.