{"id":495835,"date":"2026-10-14T13:22:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T13:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/495835\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T13:22:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T13:22:08","slug":"pentagon-awards-san-diego-company-500m-for-system-that-shoots-down-iranian-drones-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/495835\/","title":{"rendered":"Pentagon awards San Diego company $500M for system that shoots down Iranian drones \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the first days of the war, an Iranian drone strike killed six American soldiers. The conflict has since left 21 U.S. service members dead and 865 wounded, according to the Pentagon.<\/a><\/p>\n

The U.S. and its allies are now pouring money into counter-drone technology. In late September, the Army awarded up to $4.15 billion in contracts to 10 companies<\/a>, and this week NATO\u2019s innovation fund named counter-drone systems among its top priorities. <\/a><\/p>\n

One of those contractors, San Diego\u2019s Digital Force Technologies, says it has begun manufacturing hundreds of counter-drone systems for U.S. bases in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, said Justin MacLaurin, founder and CEO of Digital Force Technologies, or DFT.<\/p>\n

DFT\u2019s three-year contract is worth up to $500 million.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe government has stated that if there is demand for more than that, they\u2019re willing to increase the contract,\u201d said MacLaurin.<\/p>\n

The systems are designed to detect and track incoming drones and help operators decide quickly how to stop them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were forged in the crucible of U.S. Special Operations Forces,\u201d said MacLaurin. \u201cThey don\u2019t care about fancy PowerPoints or marketing. They want to see if it works.\u201d<\/p>\n

DFT\u2019s goal, according to the company, is to \u201caccelerate and automate the kill chain at the tactical edge.\u201d In practice, that means its AI software, SeraphimOS, pulls a base\u2019s sensors and weapons into a single system that can spot a drone and recommend how to take it down within seconds.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how it works.<\/p>\n

A radar picks up an aerial threat as far as 10 kilometers away. A camera then zooms in, and an onboard AI processor helps identify the object.<\/p>\n

From there, SeraphimOS, which MacLaurin calls \u201cthe brain,\u201d analyzes the drone\u2019s flight pattern and trajectory and calculates how many seconds remain before it reaches its target.<\/p>\n

That processing happens on the system itself rather than in the cloud, MacLaurin said. That cuts delays and keeps the data out of reach of foreign adversaries.<\/p>\n

The software then assesses what defenses are available at the base and recommends how operators should respond.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got remote control guns on turrets, right? You\u2019ve got radio frequency and lasers and high-powered microwaves,\u201d MacLaurin said, ticking through the layers of the kill chain.<\/p>\n

Those layers matter, he said, because Iran\u2019s cheap drones are bleeding American resources.<\/p>\n

Today, Iran\u2019s one-way attack drone, the Shahed-136, costs an estimated $35,000 to build<\/a> and carries a warhead of about 50 kilograms.<\/p>\n

This relatively small and cheap drone can cause mass destruction. To defend U.S. bases, Americans are shooting a Shahed down with a Patriot interceptor, which costs about $4 million.<\/p>\n

Americans are spending more than 100 times what Iran spent on the attack.<\/p>\n

This \u201ccost asymmetry\u201d has been a real challenge in this war, MacLaurin explained, one that his system aims to fix.<\/p>\n

Though he didn\u2019t share how much DFT\u2019s system costs, he did say that this program makes defending against drones marginally cheaper.<\/p>\n

\u201cSay you defend with a laser system. The laser system itself is very expensive \u2014 say, $10 million to $20 million \u2014 but it\u2019s just a pulse of energy. The cost to kill one drone is very, very small: pennies, right? Pennies to $1, maybe,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s ironic is Americans have developed some of the best defense technology in the world, he said. \u201cWhat has lagged so far is a comprehensive approach to deployment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iran has been incredibly creative in this war, MacLaurin acknowledged. Between the Shahed drones and Strait of Hormuz, \u201cthey\u2019re just trying to find what will cause the biggest impact\u2026 and we\u2019re all kind of preparing for what\u2019s next,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the first days of the war, an Iranian drone strike killed six American soldiers. The conflict has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495836,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[387,181,1703,74,76,75,1970,1696],"class_list":["post-495835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-business","tag-latest-headlines","tag-military","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-technology","tag-top-stories-sdut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495835","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=495835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}