How Silicon Valley just might save America from the growing drone threat

Jeff John Roberts here.

This drone threat is giving me the chills.

Weeks after the FBI busted a plot to launch explosive-laden drones at the White House, a U.S.

Army division engaged a Ukrainian drone unit in a war games exercise—and got whupped so thoroughly they had to “ respawn ” to keep going.

It feels like Americans in combat (and here at home) are sitting ducks for these lethal and inexpensive airborne weapons.

That’s why it was refreshing to hear some good news from Mike Wior, the CEO of defense tech startup Allen Control Systems (ACS).

In June, Wior’s firm raised $200 million, in a round led by Smash Capital, on the strength of its Bullfrog platform, which can respond to a drone threat in seconds by shooting them out of the sky with bullets.

The Bullfrog system is light enough to mount on the back of a Toyota Tacoma and, most critically, it is scalable.

Wior says ACS is currently cranking out 10 units a week and is poised to announce the opening of huge new manufacturing plants in Texas and Alabama that will let it ramp up to thousands of units a month.

The Bullfrog units are already making a difference in the Middle East theater where Iran has used cheap Chinese drones to kill American service members and blow up high tech kits worth billions of dollars.

Their arrival also comes at a time when the U.S. has been using Patriot and Thaad missiles to counter drones—an unsustainable tactic that has reportedly cost $4 million per shot .

The early phase deployment of a cheap and effective drone deterrent is encouraging news, but so too are recent procurement changes at the Department of War that have made it possible for startups like ACS to supply the military in the first place.

Those changes include the introduction of online shopping forums such as the Army UAS marketplace, which was launched in partnership with Amazon’s AWS, and that allows commanders to “buy and try” drones from vetted vendors.

There is also a similar site for counter-drone kit called C-UAS marketplace.