The Department of Homeland Security has picked the vendors that will supply its counter-drone capabilities for the next five years, awarding spots on a department-wide indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract worth up to $1.5 billion to a dozen companies spanning defense primes, IT integrators and specialized counter-UAS (C-UAS) firms.
DHS's Science and Technology Directorate confirmed the awards in an Aug. 5, 2026 release; trade outlets that covered the underlying procurement documents reported they were posted the preceding Friday, July 31, 2026. The contract runs from August 2026 through 2031 and is structured to cover the full counter-drone mission set: detection, tracking, identification and classification, mitigation, command-and-control integration, training, maintenance, research and development, and — notably — vendor-operated turnkey services that DHS components can call on without standing up their own systems.
Two Tracks, Two Kinds of Work
DHS split the IDIQ into two tracks rather than issuing a single blanket award, a structure that separates hardware-and-software providers from firms selling C-UAS as a managed service.
Track 1 covers hardware, software and ancillary services, and is the larger of the two at an estimated $1 billion ceiling. Its winners are BAE Systems, CACI, Dedrone Defense, D-Fend Solutions, EMS Defense Technologies, Fortem Technologies and Leidos — a mix of established defense contractors and companies that built their business specifically around drone detection and defeat technology.
Track 2 covers comprehensive services, with a ceiling under $500 million. Its winners are Anduril, Astrion, BAE Systems, Booz Allen Hamilton, General Dynamics IT, Leidos and Parsons Corp. BAE Systems and Leidos captured spots on both tracks, giving them the broadest reach across the vehicle.
Across the two tracks, 12 distinct companies hold at least one award. DHS said it received 57 proposals for Track 1 and 47 for Track 2 — a combined field of more than 100 competing bids, an indication of how crowded the counter-drone contracting space has become as commercial and military demand for the technology has grown.
What DHS Says It Needs
According to reporting on the underlying requirements, DHS set minimum technical thresholds for the vehicle: systems must be able to detect unmanned aircraft at 2 kilometers, track at least three simultaneous UAS targets, and mitigate — that is, disable, disrupt or otherwise neutralize — a threat drone at a minimum of 500 meters. Those benchmarks give a sense of the baseline capability DHS expects task-order winners to field, though individual orders under the IDIQ could specify tighter or more demanding requirements depending on the site and mission.
DHS has said the department grapples with "lagging drone defense skills," a gap officials have cited as a driver for the contract. Pedro Allende, DHS's Under Secretary for Science and Technology, has said he is "working really hard" to secure Other Transactions Authority for the directorate — a mechanism that lets agencies bypass the standard Federal Acquisition Regulation process — because the length of typical federal contracting has been a hindrance to faster counter-drone acquisition.
Who's In the Field
The winning roster reflects the two distinct business models competing for C-UAS dollars right now. On one side are large-scale integrators and defense primes — Anduril, BAE Systems, CACI, General Dynamics IT, Leidos, Booz Allen Hamilton and Parsons — that bring systems integration, cleared personnel and existing footprints across federal agencies. On the other are companies built specifically around counter-drone detection and mitigation technology: Dedrone Defense, D-Fend Solutions, Fortem Technologies, EMS Defense Technologies and Astrion round out the list of specialists.
The department-wide framing of the IDIQ means the contract isn't tied to a single DHS component. Task orders issued under it could flow to Customs and Border Protection, the Transportation Security Administration, the Coast Guard, the Secret Service, or other DHS elements that have their own drone-defense needs — from protecting border infrastructure to securing large public events to defending federal facilities.
Why It Matters
DHS's move consolidates what has historically been a fragmented, component-by-component approach to counter-drone acquisition into a single five-year vehicle that multiple agencies can draw on. That matters for two reasons. First, it signals that unauthorized and hostile drone activity — around airports, borders, critical infrastructure and mass-gathering events — has become enough of a persistent problem that DHS wants pre-vetted vendors and pre-negotiated terms ready to go, rather than running a fresh competition every time a component needs a system. Second, the $1.5 billion ceiling and the two-track structure create a template other federal agencies may follow: separate the sale of a physical detect-and-defeat capability from the sale of an outsourced, vendor-run service, and let the market compete for both. With 104 combined proposals across the two tracks, the awards also confirm that counter-UAS has matured into a genuinely competitive federal contracting sector rather than a niche served by one or two suppliers — a shift that should widen the pool of technology DHS components can call on as the drone threat landscape keeps evolving through 2031.
