Drone and counter-drone contract awards, July to September 2026.

The quarter in figures

1. Count and value by domain

The dataset holds 104 records: awards announced or published between 1 July and 30 September 2026, and US federal civil awards signed in that period. 39 come from defence buyers and 65 from civil buyers. Most records are single awards. One record covers the 15 awards of a Department of Homeland Security vehicle, and 4 EU notices name more than one winner under a single total.

Values sit in two groups that are never added together. Firm values (contract values, orders, modifications and obligated amounts) total $1.16bn: $1.08bn defence and $76.6m civil. Maximums total $5.43bn across 24 records; these are contract and agreement ceilings, framework totals, and values the announcement says will be funded order by order. One record, the Homeland Security vehicle, has no value in either group.

2. Top five awards by firm value

1. AeroVironment Inc., US Army (Portfolio Acquisition Executive for Fires): $464,800,000. Enduring-High Energy Laser (E-HEL), LOCUST laser weapon systems, Other Transaction Agreement. Company figure. Source
2. Tekever Ltd, Defence Equipment and Support (UK Ministry of Defence): £220,000,000 ($292.3m). Project CORVUS: uncrewed air system for the Army Land Tactical Deep Find 24-hour persistent surveillance requirement (direct award under section 43). Source
3. Stellar Ordnance, Ministry of Defence (Belgium): €46,898,390 ($53.3m). Urgent acquisition of drone systems (V-BAT). Source
4. AeroVironment Inc., US Army: $51,000,000. Switchblade 600 Block 2 (and Block 1 for a Foreign Military Sale) delivery order under the Army's $990m Lethal Unmanned Systems IDIQ. Company figure. Source
5. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., US Navy (Naval Air Systems Command): $47,361,658. MQ-9A Reaper, Marine Air Ground Task Force Expeditionary MALE UAS. Source

3. Buyer countries

US buyers account for 86 of the 104 records and 69.7% of firm value. The United Kingdom accounts for 25.2% of firm value, almost all of it one award. Counts depend on what each system publishes, on the search terms used and on the $250,000 floor applied to US civil records, so they are not a direct measure of purchasing by country.

4. Vendor concentration

AeroVironment and Tekever account for 69.7% of firm value. AeroVironment's share rests mainly on its own announcement of the US Army Enduring-High Energy Laser agreement; Tekever's is the UK Project CORVUS contract. The share uses all firm value as its denominator. The 2 firm-value notices with several winners under one undivided total stay in that denominator but are not assigned to any vendor.

5. Change on the previous quarter

This is the first edition. Comparisons begin with Q4 2026, scheduled for 13 January 2027.

Our assessment

An Army counter-drone vehicle, measured in maximums

The largest group in this dataset by value is one contract family. In announcements dated 1 July and 29 September, Army Contracting Command at Detroit Arsenal made 11 awards for commercial counter-UAS capabilities under contract numbers in the W912CH-26-D-A0 series, with combined maximums of $4.65bn out of the dataset's $5.43bn in maximums. The 10 announcements dated 29 September each report 50 bids received. All 11 say that “work locations and funding will be determined with each order”; the passages read for this edition report no order placed. A further award in the same number series, $500m to CACI for a commercial catalogue that includes counter-UAS capabilities, is left out because its drone share cannot be separated. Orders under these contracts that appear in federal records and meet this dataset's rules will be added in later editions.

Civil buyers account for 65 of the 104 records and 6.6% of firm value. Of the civil records, 9 are counter-UAS, with $33.8m in firm value, from the Federal Aviation Administration, the Department of Energy, the Transportation Security Administration, the Bureau of Prisons, the Department of Homeland Security and the US Marshals Service. The Homeland Security counter-UAS vehicle was signed on 31 July with twelve companies across two tracks; a fifteenth award was added on 15 September. Its award records, as extracted, show $250 obligated per award and give no ceiling value, so the vehicle carries no value in this dataset. One Transportation Security Administration order to Dedrone, $1.41m on 30 September, is issued under Dedrone's contract on that vehicle.

Outside the United States, the largest firm value in this dataset is the UK Project CORVUS award to Tekever, £220,000,000 excluding VAT. The award notice says eight bidders responded to the invitation to tender and “none of these responses were suitable”, that the authority used section 43 of the Procurement Act 2023 to switch to a direct award, and that Tekever was “the only bidder in the Procurement to pass Stage 1”. The UK civil awards found on Find a Tender are four notices from police, highways and research buyers, each under £150,000 excluding VAT. In the EU records, police, border guard and fire services in Estonia, Germany and Spain published drone award notices with totals from about €0.35m to €2.5m.

The dataset

104 rows, sorted by date. Original currency first; the US dollar figure uses the rates in the method notes. “Basis” gives the value type as the source states it; where it is Drone Intelligence's classification, it says so. Rows marked “max” are maximums.

Method and coverage

What counts. A contract award, order or modification for uncrewed aircraft, counter-UAS systems, their components, software, training or support, made by a named public buyer. One record per award, with two exceptions: the Homeland Security counter-UAS vehicle is one record for its 15 awards, and each EU notice is one record. Mergers, grants, funding rounds, qualification pools and solicitations are excluded, as are awards whose drone element cannot be separated from a wider scope (listed below).

Dates. Records from war.gov, Find a Tender and TED are dated by announcement or publication, company and press records by publication, and US federal civil records by date signed; each row says which. Where the source gives a separate award, decision, signature or conclusion date, it is in the “awarded” field.

Where the rows come from. war.gov: every daily contract announcement page dated 1 July to 30 September, paragraphs naming unmanned aerial or aircraft systems, UAS, sUAS, UAV, drones, loitering munitions or counter-UAS. US federal civil: Federal Procurement Data System records read through USAspending, signed in the quarter, at $250,000 or more obligated, found with the terms unmanned aircraft, unmanned aerial, UAS, sUAS, UAV, drone and counter-UAS, each read and unrelated items removed. The Homeland Security vehicle is included under a separate rule for indefinite-delivery vehicles, because its awards carry $250 each at signature. UK: Find a Tender award and contract-details notices found with the terms drone, uncrewed and unmanned. EU: TED contract award notices published in the quarter under the drone CPV codes (35613000, 35613100, 34711200) or naming drones in the text. 3 rows rest on a company release or trade press report and are labelled as such.

Checks. Each row's buyer, supplier, date and value were read from the source record on 26 Oct 2026 and the supporting source text for each row is kept in a per-row evidence file held by Drone Intelligence. After the evidence cut-off of 31 Oct 2026, a final check on 2 Nov 2026 of US federal civil records on USAspending and UK Find a Tender notices added no rows, and every source link was confirmed to resolve.

Not covered in this edition. Smaller US Department of War orders that are not announced on war.gov (federal records for defence awards are published after a delay). US state and local government contracts. Canada: CanadaBuys lists seven September awards under a federal low-cost UAS solicitation (W8703-270094) without values, and the records could not be re-read at build time. Australia's AusTender was not queried. Ukrainian procurement records were not swept.

Values. Firm values and maximums are reported separately and never summed together. A maximum is the most that may be ordered; it is not money spent or committed. Notices with several winners report one total, not split by winner. One contract number (W912CH-26-D-A073) is classed as a maximum by Drone Intelligence because its contract type marks an indefinite-delivery contract and its announcement says funding will be determined with each order. UK values are excluding VAT. Converted to US dollars at European Central Bank euro reference rates for 30 September 2026 (USD 1.1355, GBP 0.85463, CZK 24.44, SEK 11.331, PLN 4.369 per euro). The original currency and amount are kept on every row.

Domain. Defence means a defence ministry, armed service or defence agency buyer. Every other public buyer, including homeland security, police, border and prison agencies, is civil.

Excluded after review.

• war.gov 23 Jul 2026, Siemens Government Technologies, $79,988,134, W911RQ-26-C-A016: Mixed scope: a manufacturing capability 'including an initial production capability' for UAS motor stators; drone share not separable.
• war.gov 30 Jul 2026, CACI Inc. - Federal, $500,000,000 single-award IDIQ, W912CH-26-D-A093: Mixed scope: a commercial catalogue 'including' counter-UAS capabilities; drone share not separable.
• war.gov 16 Jul 2026, Serco Inc., $25,000,000 modification, N0017422D0006: Mixed scope: Close-In Weapon Systems and counter-UAS support.
• war.gov 18 Aug 2026, Overland AI, N6833526C1060; 30 Jul 2026 multiple award incl. Saildrone: Ground and surface systems; outside scope.
• TED 570549-2026, Italy, Folgore Brigade, EUR 711,907.56, four winners: Mixed scope: engineer-unit combat materials; drone share not stated.
• TED 660379-2026, Romania, IGSU, EUR 5,195,772 framework: Mixed scope: lot 1 CBRN unmanned aircraft and lot 2 CBRN ground robot; value not split by lot in the record.
• Find a Tender 089648-2026, Satellite Applications Catapult Ltd, Dantec Dynamics Limited, £600,000 ex VAT: Mixed scope: wind flow test equipment for 'unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and other autonomous platforms'; drone share not separable.
• TED 460083-2026 and 544712-2026, Romania; 660593-2026, Greece; 607448-2026, Finland: Modifications of 2024 contracts, a December 2025 contract, or no winner named.
• FPDS 89233126FNA400803, Department of Energy, Anduril Industries, $5,769,619: Record describes collaborative autonomous systems; aircraft not stated.
• FPDS 70B02C26F00000545, CBP, Atlantic Diving Supply, $826,229: Record text ('Warranty and parts/ spares') names no drone item.
• AeroVironment, 8 Sep 2026, first international LOCUST order, more than $50 million: Buyer not named; public-buyer status not established.
• AeroVironment, 27 Aug 2026, NASA SkyFall Mars helicopters: Contracting party and value not stated.
• Motorola Solutions acquisition of D-Fend; grants; funding rounds; Canada DDI marketplace supply arrangements: Not procurement awards.

Corrections. Corrections after publication raise the version number and are listed below. Report an error through the contact page.

• Version 1.0, 2 Nov 2026: First edition.

Citation and licence

Suggested citation: Drone Intelligence, Drone Procurement Quarterly Q3 2026, published 2 November 2026, droneintelligence.ai/procurement-quarterly/2026-q3.

The data table (CSV and JSON) is released under CC BY 4.0. The written assessment on this page is not covered by that licence. Next edition: Q4 2026, scheduled for 13 January 2027. See also the defence procurement tracker and the counter-UAS map.