{"id":86539,"date":"2026-05-19T14:32:43","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T14:32:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2026\/05\/19\/pentagon-inks-500-million-deal-with-perennial-autonomy-for-counter-drone-tech\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T01:32:37","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T01:32:37","slug":"pentagon-inks-500-million-deal-with-perennial-autonomy-for-counter-drone-tech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/industry\/techwatch\/2026\/05\/19\/pentagon-inks-500-million-deal-with-perennial-autonomy-for-counter-drone-tech\/","title":{"rendered":"Pentagon inks $500 million deal with Perennial Autonomy for counter-drone tech"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Pentagon awarded Perennial Autonomy, a California-based startup making headlines for its counter-drone technology, a $500 million contract to accelerate its procurement of the defensive systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to Monday\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.war.gov\/News\/News-Stories\/Article\/Article\/4495165\/joint-interagency-task-force-401-awards-500-million-counter-uas-contract\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\">press release<\/a>, the decision to award the contract was made by the <a href=\"https:\/\/media.defense.gov\/2025\/Aug\/28\/2003790021\/-1\/-1\/0\/ESTABLISHMENT-OF-JOINT-INTERAGENCY-TASK-FORCE-401.PDF\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\">Joint Interagency Task Force 401<\/a>, or JIATF-401, a Defense Department organization charged with researching, testing, and procuring counter-drone technology. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Perennial will deliver a range of AI-enabled counter-unmanned aerial systems currently used by U.S. forces. These include Merops interceptors, Bumblebee quadcopters and Hornet midrange strike drones. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.perennialautonomy.com\/company-news\/idiq\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\">statement<\/a>, the company said the contract \u201cvalidates the operational reliability of that technology in the world\u2019s most actively contested environments,\u201d and \u201cdeepens the existing strategic partnership\u201d between it and the Defense Department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Matt Ross, director of JIATF-401, in the statement called drones \u201cthe defining threat of our time,\u201d and reiterated the need to maintain partnerships with companies like Perennial. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe must be proactive with creating a layered defense that deploy and scale low-cost, attritable air-to-air drone interceptors at all our facilities at home and abroad,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In December, the Pentagon launched the billion-dollar <a href=\"https:\/\/drone-dominance.io\/index.html#overview\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\">Drone Dominance initiative<\/a> to equip troops with cheap, disposable drones and prepare them for technological changes on the battlefield, many of which were demonstrated in Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another part of the initiative included <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/air\/2026\/02\/03\/pentagon-taps-25-firms-for-small-cheap-attack-drone-competition\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\">investing heavily<\/a> in the domestic drone industry, so within the next few years, equipment could be produced at scale for significantly less money. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But the Iran war further accelerated the U.S. military\u2019s demand for the types of drones combatants have been using to attack or harass troops, destroy equipment or infrastructure and conduct surveillance, among other things. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During last month\u2019s budget hearings, Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll <a href=\"https:\/\/www.armytimes.com\/unmanned\/2026\/04\/20\/us-army-turns-to-ukraine-tested-drones-to-counter-iranian-uav-threat\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\">told<\/a> lawmakers that Perennial began rapidly scaling production of its Merops drones. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Perennial, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.drone-directory.com.ua\/profile\/project-eagle\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\">originally launched<\/a> by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt as Project Eagle, developed the Merops interceptor for Ukrainian forces to counter Russia\u2019s one-way attack drones known as Shaheds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The U.S. military is using the interceptors the same way against Iran\u2019s Sheheds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When answering questions about the investment, Driscoll described a war of attrition, saying the Merops currently costs about $15,000 per unit, whereas a Shahed costs somewhere between $30,000 and $50,000. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Additionally, JIATF-401 awarded Perennial a separate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.army.mil\/article\/290392\/jiatf_401_acquires_advanced_kinetic_counter_drone_system_to_enhance_warfighter_lethality\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\">$5.2 million contract<\/a> in January for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-military\/2026\/02\/13\/us-army-to-debut-fpv-bumblebee-v2-drone-interceptor-next-month\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\">Bumblebee V2 counter-drone system<\/a>, and the Army <a href=\"https:\/\/defence-blog.com\/u-s-army-evaluates-low-cost-hornet-kamikaze-drone-in-germany\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\">reportedly<\/a> tested the Hornet midrange strike drones in March. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The company has also opened manufacturing operations in Europe <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/posts\/24industries_we-are-pleased-to-demonstrate-perennial-autonomys-activity-7460584749720518657-fBN4\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\">through a partnership<\/a> aimed at expanding production of its Merops drones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Perennial\u2019s contract will end in three years or whenever the Pentagon pays out the full $500 million, whichever comes first. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Pentagon awarded Perennial Autonomy a $500 million contract to accelerate procurement of counter-drone technology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":120568,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":151,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,151,26],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3364],"class_list":["post-86539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-techwatch","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"2JXAVJWQQVC4LBJUH2GS6VSAP4","arc_canonical_url":"\/industry\/techwatch\/2026\/05\/19\/pentagon-inks-500-million-deal-with-perennial-autonomy-for-counter-drone-tech\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Pentagon inks $500 million deal with Perennial Autonomy for counter-drone tech - Navy Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Pentagon awarded Perennial Autonomy a $500 million contract to accelerate procurement of counter-drone technology.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pentagon inks $500 million deal with Perennial Autonomy for counter-drone tech\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Pentagon awarded Perennial Autonomy a $500 million contract to accelerate procurement of counter-drone technology.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" 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