Fortem Technologies, the Lindon, Utah counter-drone company, has closed a $50 million Series B round led by Lockheed Martin. The company announced the close on Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, according to reporting by KSL and DroneDJ. Unusual Machines is among the participating investors.
The round builds on an earlier commitment. Lockheed Martin invested $25 million in April, and DroneDJ reports that the $25 million was committed to the initial tranche of the round, announced earlier this year. The Sept. 30 announcement is the close of the full $50 million Series B.
What the Money Is For
Fortem says the capital will accelerate manufacturing at its Lindon, Utah facility and widen deployments of its SkyDome counter-UAS system. According to DroneDJ, SkyDome brings together TrueView radar sensors, AI-powered command-and-control software, and autonomous DroneHunter interceptors. DroneDJ also reports that Fortem is integrating its technology with Lockheed Martin's Sanctum counter-UAS architecture.
The factory emphasis has a history. An earlier Janes report, based on a company spokesperson's comments on Feb. 22, 2023, described plans to nearly triple a factory from 35,000 square feet to about 100,000 square feet. That expansion was to be paid for in part from a $17.8 million raise in which Lockheed Martin Ventures and Hanwha Aerospace were among the investors. The Janes piece also described the DroneHunter F700, which captures targets with a net, along with TrueView radars and the SkyDome Manager software. That article predates the Series B by more than three years and is not about it; it is useful mainly as a marker of how the company's funding and production ambitions have grown. See Janes.
The Contract Backdrop
Fortem points to several government relationships as evidence of demand. DroneDJ lists a Department of Homeland Security contract covering World Cup venues, a U.S. Army contract for installation defense at sites worldwide, and an August selection as the only small business chosen as a prime contractor on DHS's five-year counter-UAS hardware and software contract. DroneDJ puts the estimated starting ceiling of that vehicle at $1.011 billion; KSL describes it as an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract worth more than $1 billion.
KSL adds that Fortem deployed equipment at the last two FIFA World Cup sites. It also reports that the company has been sanctioned by Russia after two years supporting Ukraine's defense.
A caveat applies to the DHS claims. They come from the company and from trade and local press. UASFeed did not read the underlying government contract documents, so the ceiling, the award structure and the small-business-prime status should be treated as reported by Fortem and the outlets covering it, not independently confirmed.
What Lockheed Says
KSL quotes Fortem chief business officer Charlie O'Connell and Stephanie C. Hill, president of Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems; DroneDJ carries O'Connell's quote and paraphrases Hill. KSL carries Hill's framing of what customers need: "They need solutions they can field quickly, scale in volume and adapt rapidly."
That sentence is the commercial logic of the deal. Fortem brings a radar, interceptors and software that already work together as SkyDome, and DroneDJ says Lockheed's investment deepens an existing relationship between the two companies, which Janes shows reaching back at least to Lockheed Martin Ventures' participation in the 2023 raise.
Why It Matters
Counter-UAS is moving from a niche procurement line to a production problem. A prime contractor putting $25 million of its own money behind a smaller supplier, and then leading a round that reaches $50 million, suggests that large integrators want close access to the interceptors and radars that supplier makes; that is UASFeed's inference, not a statement from either company. The stated emphasis on manufacturing capacity points the same way: DroneDJ writes that the Series B is about producing and deploying more of what Fortem already has as customers look for systems they can put into operation quickly.
The reported DHS vehicle matters for a second reason. A small-business prime slot on a contract with a starting ceiling above $1 billion, if the details hold up, would give a company of Fortem's size a direct federal channel rather than a subcontractor's position under a larger firm. The caveat remains that a ceiling is not an obligation; actual orders will determine how much of it is spent.
Finally, the World Cup and installation-defense work show where reported demand is concentrated: large public venues and military installations. Whether Fortem's production can keep pace with that demand is what the new factory capacity will be tested against.
