The US military task force leading the response to the drone threat announced on Tuesday a new set of enterprise contracts for counter-drone technologies with a combined ceiling of nearly $7 billion, according to Business Insider.

The contracts, awarded by the Joint Interagency Task Force 401, or JIATF-401, cover a range of companies and counter-uncrewed aerial system capabilities, including sensors and other non-kinetic tools for detecting and disabling drones as well as kinetic weapons for shooting them down.

Officials said the investment was intended to scale different technologies so that military units and federal agencies can obtain systems suited to their specific requirements, environments and threats, Business Insider reported.

I’ll tell you there isn’t one answer to the drone threat. So we didn’t build around one solution.

The remark came from Brent Ingraham, assistant secretary of the Army for acquisitions, logistics and technology, speaking to reporters, according to Business Insider.

Brig. Gen. Matthew Ross, director of JIATF-401, told a roundtable discussion that the contracts would ensure counter-drone capabilities proliferating widely are available to military formations. “I think it solves a couple of problems,” he said. “Number one is it makes sure that these capabilities that are going to be proliferated a ton are available to our formations.”

Ross said the deals also widen the availability of systems that may previously have been viewed as specific to the Department of Defense. JIATF-401 replaced the Pentagon’s previous counter-drone force and covers the military as well as federal, state and local agencies, according to Business Insider.

Officials said the structure gives agencies more options rather than complete reliance on a single company or system. Ross said different units face different threats: “If you think about 11th Airborne in Alaska or 1st Armored Division, both Army units, they have very different needs in terms of counter-UAS capability.”

Military officials have said they see no single answer to drones that can be easily distributed across the larger force. Instead, officials have emphasised building a layered defense, with systems able to detect, disable and destroy threats at different ranges. Business Insider reported that the new contracts are intended to give units access to that mix of capabilities.

The contracts mark the latest step in accelerating the adoption of counter-drone systems, with urgency driven by ongoing conflicts and the rapid proliferation of drones. The war in Ukraine has pushed the US to adapt to the demands of modern drone warfare, but other attacks have added to the pressure.

Hostile drones killed six US service members in Kuwait in March and three US soldiers in Jordan in 2024, Business Insider reported. An investigation into the Jordan attack, obtained by Business Insider, found the military was insufficiently prepared for the threat.

Earlier this year, JIATF-401 stood up a drone marketplace through which units and agencies can purchase systems, and efforts have been underway to open it to international partners and allies. Earlier this month, Australia became the first ally to successfully procure technology from the marketplace, according to Business Insider.