Anduril and Zone 5 advance DIU counter-drone prototypes

Anduril Industries and Zone 5 Technologies have wrapped up recent development sprints and initial flight tests for the prototype systems they're building for the Defense Innovation Unit's drone-defeat program.

According to DIU, both companies are now refining their designs through iterative improvements as they work to secure approval for a live fire test event slated for summer 2026.

The update comes less than a year after DIU selected the vendors last fall from a pool of more than 65 applicants vying to build Counter NEXT prototypes. The program seeks counter-uncrewed aerial system technologies that maximize the use of commercial off-the-shelf components, minimize costly materials and are designed for mass production.

“The Counter NEXT project is focused on leveraging the best-in-breed commercially derived technology and processes to accelerate the development, production, and fielding of these vital Counter UAS interceptors to our warfighters,” said Joshua Zike, DIU’s Counter NEXT program manager.

The solutions are also using modular open systems architectures to make future design improvements and rapidly integrate subsystems and components on a rolling basis. All those components, DIU said, will be held to some of the highest military standards so warfighters can rely on the technology across differing operational environments.

While Counter NEXT is focused on C-UAS capabilities, DIU’s Zike wants to expand the focus on countering uncrewed systems across all military domains.

“Variants for all domains should be developed and deployed to provide this vital layered kinetic counter [uncrewed systems] defeat capability to all our warfighters,” he said.

DIU said Anduril and Zone 5 received additional funding after the flight tests to rapidly refine their prototypes based on sprint lessons and warfighter feedback, integrate with mission partner combat systems, and complete safety testing ahead of the summer 2026 live fire event.

The announcement comes more than six months after the Air Force and DIU selected both vendors to build next-generation, precision-guided munitions using COTS components for the second phase of an Enterprise Test Vehicle (ETV) project.