{"id":458191,"date":"2026-09-09T12:02:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T12:02:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/458191\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T12:02:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T12:02:17","slug":"exclusive-bullfrog-maker-acs-expanding-in-texas-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/458191\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive: Bullfrog-maker ACS expanding in Texas, California"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/a> A Bullfrog turret in the wild. Photo: Courtesy of Allen Control Systems <\/p>\n

Allen Control Systems is expanding its manufacturing footprint in Austin, Texas, to meet what the startup is calling “accelerating demand” for drone countermeasures<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Why it matters: The state capital has cemented itself as a haven for defense tech. <\/p>\n

Driving the news: ACS is cutting the ribbon on a 191,000-square-foot facility. The setup will help dramatically increase production of Bullfrog turrets<\/a>, CEO Mike Wior told Axios. <\/p>\n

Catch up quick: Bullfrog combines precision robotics, computer vision<\/a> and autonomous control to enable widely available weapons, like the M240, M2, M230 and M134, to shoot down small and fast-moving drones. <\/p>\n

“Getting this into the fight, leveraging the unlimited arsenal of 7.62 bullets that we have all over the world, is just a critical layer to being able to free up” other resources, like high-end interceptors, Wior said. <\/p>\n

Bullfrog also works with laser<\/a> dazzlers and less-than-lethal ammunition, like rubber bullets. <\/p>\n

Follow the money: ACS raised $200 million this summer and was valued north of $2 billion. Eighty turrets have been committed this year. <\/p>\n

The startup has signed contracts with the Army, Marine Corps and Special Operations Command, among others. It also has buyers in South Korea<\/a> and the United Arab Emirates. <\/p>\n

“The ones that we sell to the Army will be every bit as salt resistant and water resistant as what we sell to the Navy,” Wior said. “I think the most interesting thing has been the shock and vibe requirements.” <\/p>\n

Fun fact: There exists a rose-gold<\/a> Bullfrog. It’s called Rosie. <\/p>\n

What’s next: ACS is also opening an engineering facility in Silicon Valley. <\/p>\n

AI is moving fast. Axios AI+ keeps you ahead. Sign up free at Axios.com<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Bullfrog turret in the wild. Photo: Courtesy of Allen Control Systems Allen Control Systems is expanding its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458192,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[5994,180754,7,9,8,180755,564],"class_list":["post-458191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-austin","tag-bullfrog","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-mike-wior","tag-texas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}