SOF Week 2026: DroneShield moves to double its production capacity in the US

The global counter-drone company DroneShield is moving aggressively to expand its manufacturing footprint in the US. Initially planned to require two years, the multimillion-dollar process to double its production capacity in the country is now intended to be concluded at least four months earlier.

Starting in September last year, the augmentation effort is now on track to be completed within the next six to nine months, according to the president of DroneShield’s American subsidiary, Ray Fitzgerald. He told Shephard that, in this timeframe, the new manufacturing equipment “will be up and banging on all cylinders”.

By expediting its growth plans, the company intends to answer the increasing demand for counter-uncrewed systems (C-UxS) capabilities across the US military, government, law enforcement and commercial sectors.

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An example is the Pentagon’s Replicator 2 programme, which mainly focused on accelerating the deployment of counter-small UAS systems across the military.

Meanwhile, the US Army has also established the Joint Interagency Task Force 401 to coordinate and speed up acquisition efforts for C-UAS technologies.

“The US is the biggest market out there, so we have got to be able to be responsive to it,” Fitzgerald stated. “We have got to get closer to the customer, be able to react faster, get the supply chain kind of in line, especially on the long-lead items.”

He added that establishing domestic assembly and supply chain resilience has become “one of the company’s highest priorities” as well as expanding its local staff.

“We are hiring, and we are trying to make sure that we fulfil all the different customers’ needs,” Fitzgerald said.

DroneShield’s American expansion comes as governments and military organisations worldwide race to strengthen their inventories against more complex drone threats, including coordinated swarms, non-jamming UAVs and long-range autonomous attack systems.

This push reflects broader trends reshaping the global defence industry, with the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East highlighting the growing importance of C-UAS technologies against all types of UAVs, from low-cost commercial quadcopters to more sophisticated Group 3 drones.

From Fitzgerald’s perspective, lessons learned from those conflicts have reinforced the company’s need for larger inventories and faster deployment cycles. He stated that DroneShield has also leveraged operational experience gained from deployments in Europe.

“We have thousands of units [of equipment] in Eastern Europe and a really good response there. When we see a new threat, a new tactic or procedure that the bad guys are using, we incorporate it, input it into that training and get it right back out in the field,” he noted.

At SOF Week 2026, the company will showcase part of its portfolio of handheld and fixed-site EW platforms designed to detect, identify and defeat hostile drones. At the exhibition in Tampa, Florida, from 19-21 May, the DroneSentry-X and the portable DroneGun will be on display.

DroneShield is also developing new capabilities designed to counter more sophisticated drone swarms. 

“We have new approaches, but I do not think we are ready to come out of the plaza with them yet,” Fitzgerald said.

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