Counter-Drone Spending Is a Sensor Story: LIDS, Space Force Radars, ASC

Interceptors win the headlines in counter-drone news, but three recent announcements share a quieter theme: you cannot shoot down what you cannot see. A $729 million Raytheon award, a Space Force radar overhaul and a seed-stage startup's debut all turn on sensing.

On 13 October, RTX's Raytheon said it was awarded $729 million to deliver components of the LIDS counter-drone system to the US Army, Qatar and Jordan. LIDS, the Low, slow, small, unmanned aircraft Integrated Defeat System, pairs Raytheon's Ku-band Radio Frequency Sensor, known as KuRFS, which provides 360-degree detection, with Coyote effectors, which defeat single drones and swarms using kinetic and non-kinetic means. Raytheon says Coyote has made hundreds of combat intercepts. The package includes fixed-site and mobile configurations and marks the first international sales of KuRFS and Coyote.

Raytheon did not disclose how the $729 million is split among the three customers, or the quantities and delivery schedules. Industry coverage links the urgency to Iranian drone attacks that damaged sites in US-allied Gulf countries. RTX says it is expanding production, and it recently reported three successful tests of the Coyote Block 2C+RM variant, which adds a rocket motor for faster launches and higher velocity, along with an updated seeker and warhead. RTX News

The Space Force's Ground-Based Radar Digitization program is not new this week, and it is not Raytheon's alone. On 17 July, the service awarded firm-fixed-price other transaction agreements worth a combined $423.4 million to three companies: Raytheon at $309.5 million, SciTec Innovations at $93.7 million and WildStar at $20.2 million. They will develop a common architecture and design for modernizing six legacy radars, five Upgraded Early Warning Radar sites and the Perimeter Acquisition Radar Attack Characterization System in North Dakota, which has operated since the 1970s. The award followed eight offers, and work runs through April 2028.

An earlier Space Force notice called for open, nonproprietary systems and commercial off-the-shelf components, to preserve vendor flexibility, with full operational capability targeted for 2030. In other words, the same company that supplies a short-range drone-detection radar is also upgrading radars that watch for missiles and track objects in space. TheDefencePost

At the start-up end, Austin Sensing Company emerged from stealth this week with $15 million in total funding, including an $11 million seed round led by Bow Capital with Bling Capital, Draper Associates and others, according to Tectonic Defense and the company's CEO. It plans to build what it calls the full airspace sensing stack: RF detection, radar and acoustic sensors. Its first product is a tripod-mounted RF detection system covering 28 square miles per unit. CTO Isaac Duke, a former engineer at defense startup Saronic, says the goal is to make counter-UAS platforms more effective by giving operators better awareness.

The company has moved into a 20,000-square-foot factory in Austin, has units out for testing with undisclosed customers, and plans high-volume production of its radar and acoustic systems next year. It faces well-funded competitors including Echodyne, Fortem, CHAOS Industries and Hidden Level. Tectonic Defence