The Pentagon's counter-drone task force launched an online marketplace for buying validated systems, bypassing slow acquisition. Built by Kaizen Labs under a $15M contract, it went live two weeks ago.
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A Pentagon task force has rolled out an online marketplace for buying counter-drone systems, part of a push to bypass slow weapons acquisition processes. The Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems Marketplace went live two weeks ago, built by Kaizen Laboratories under a $15 million contract awarded in May.
The site is a catalog of validated equipment – kinetic weapons, jammers, detection gear – that military personnel, federal government users, and law enforcement can browse by requirements. They can review performance data, compare features, and submit purchase requests. Defense officials have said this kind of online shop helps bypass traditional acquisition, which can be fragmented and slow for users to navigate.
Kaizen CEO Nikhil Reddy told reporters the existing software for discovering and buying defense systems is broken. "These are broken, disconnected application layer systems that are preventing real capability from being deployed at the edge as fast as possible," he said. "Threats are changing so quickly, the systems that we actually have, the software layer, the application layer used to discover, evaluate, acquire, procure these systems, is so far behind what it needs to be. Operators are losing time, and in some cases, there's a loss of life if we can't move fast enough."
The war with Iran has reinforced the need for cheaper, more prolific counter-UAS weapons. American and allied forces have spent large numbers of expensive munitions shooting down Iranian Shahed drones. Six U.S. soldiers were killed by a drone attack in Kuwait during the opening days of the war. The prevalence of one-way attack drones, used alongside waves of missiles, has put pressure on the Pentagon to field layered defenses that do not rely chiefly on costly interceptors.
"Drones are a defining threat of our time," Brig. Gen. Matt Ross, director of the Joint Interagency Task Force-401, said in a statement. "The proliferation of small systems and small drones and the threat that they pose both to critical infrastructure and to defense critical assets requires us to move faster in this space." He added that the marketplace expansion would let the task force share equipment and best practices globally.
The platform includes a library of forms and permits, plus a planning tool. Users describe a threat, and the system generates AI recommendations across the kill chain, Reddy said. Some vendors with approved systems – Anduril and AeroVironment among them – have already put products on the site. Other vendors can submit product information for approval. U.S. partners and allies will also get access.
Maj. Mike Hapner, JIATF-401's marketplace lead, called it a "revolutionary marketplace, powered through our partnership with industry, [that] creates a streamlined, trusted pathway for the Joint Force, domestic law enforcement, and our international partners to rapidly discover and acquire validated technologies."
The setup echoes Ukraine's Brave1 Market, an Amazon-style platform for drones and counter-drone gear. Ukrainian manufacturers post products; military units buy them and leave reviews and ratings. The Ukrainian defense ministry has said the average delivery time for in-stock products fell from 10-14 days to eight days for front-line troops.
Reddy said the Pentagon marketplace was built from a blank slate in less than nine weeks.
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