Dedrone Defense has won the first orders on the Department of Homeland Security’s $1.5 billion counter-drone contract. Federal spending records show three task orders worth $6.8 million, all signed between 28 and 30 September, the last three days of the government’s financial year.
The Transportation Security Administration placed two of them. The larger, $5.2 million, buys fixed and mobile sensors that pick up a drone’s radio signals to track it and locate its pilot. FEMA spent $200,000 to have a sensor suite surveyed, installed and run.
The third, for $1.4 million, is a TSA order to Dedrone for a counter-drone kit built around D-Fend’s EnforceAir2, which takes over a drone’s control link and lands it. The order record calls it a split award.
D-Fend holds its own place on the same contract. Motorola Solutions bought it for $1.5 billion on 20 August. Dedrone belongs to Axon, which sells body cameras and Tasers to police. So the first DHS order for D-Fend’s equipment went to Axon’s company, not Motorola’s.
Twelve companies hold places on the contract, including Leidos, BAE Systems, Anduril and Fortem. On 7 October the records showed no orders for any of the other eleven. Agencies can report late, so more September orders may still appear.
A place on the contract guarantees nothing. It lets any part of DHS buy from the twelve without running its own competition. TSA is the first agency known to have done so. The contract runs to July 2031.
