Detecting and defeating small unmanned aircraft, under rules set elsewhere
Counter unmanned aircraft procurement is unusual in that the legal constraints are tighter than the technical ones. Detection through radio frequency sensing may engage interception law; jamming and spoofing are regulated uses of spectrum that most operators are not permitted to make and that interfere with navigation and communications systems belonging to others; and physically defeating an aircraft over a populated area creates a falling object. Tenders are therefore written around what the buyer is legally authorised to do, and a bid proposing effectors the buyer cannot lawfully use is inadmissible however capable.
Detection is specified as a layered problem because no single sensor is sufficient. Radio frequency detection finds controlled aircraft but not autonomous ones, radar struggles against small slow targets among clutter, acoustic sensing has short range, and optical confirmation needs cueing. Buyers therefore specify sensor fusion, and the measures that matter are probability of detection at range against defined target classes and, critically, false alarm rate: a system that stops an airport hourly for birds is worse than no system.
The environment governs everything. Urban sites bring reflections, congested spectrum and dense background traffic; airports bring safety regulation and coordination with air traffic control; and the rapid evolution of the threat means a system frozen at delivery is obsolete quickly, so software update paths, threat library currency and an open architecture for adding effectors and sensors are contractual requirements. Integration with existing security control rooms and recording for evidential use are specified far more often than they are bid.
This section describes how this category is bought generally, across the public buyers that publish it. The figures elsewhere on this page are measured for this market alone.
Who buys counter uas in United States?
GlobalGov holds 64 counter uas records from 39 distinct buying organisations in United States. The most frequent publishers are W6QM MICC-Ft Drum (11 records); Army Contracting Command (3 records); Commanding General (3 records); Dol - Cas Division 4 Procurement (3 records); USDA Ars Afm Apd (3 records); 0411 AQ Hq Contract Aug (2 records). Between them the 6 largest account for 39% of everything published, so buying here is spread across many separate authorities.
| Buying organisation | Records | Share |
|---|---|---|
| W6QM MICC-Ft Drum | 11 | 17% |
| Army Contracting Command | 3 | 4.7% |
| Commanding General | 3 | 4.7% |
| Dol - Cas Division 4 Procurement | 3 | 4.7% |
| USDA Ars Afm Apd | 3 | 4.7% |
| 0411 AQ Hq Contract Aug | 2 | 3.1% |
How long do bidders get to respond to counter uas tenders in United States?
Across the 60 United States counter uas notices that publish both a publication date and a closing date, the median response window is 11 days. A quarter of them allowed 7 days or fewer and a quarter stayed open for more than 19. 34 of them (57%) closed within a fortnight of being published, so on this market a bidder who reviews notices once a week can lose most of the response window before reading one.
How often are counter uas tenders published in United States?
United States publishes about 5 notices a month in this category, 64 in the last twelve months. Over the last three years there were 64, spread across 7 separate months of activity since 3 November 2025. April is historically the busiest month. No new notice has been published in this category since 1 May 2026, 153 days ago, so treat the figures above as a record of the market rather than as this week's pipeline.
Where do the United States counter uas records on this page come from?
These 64 records are collected from 2 official sources: SAM.gov (63), Simpler.Grants.gov (1). GlobalGov is an independent aggregator and is not affiliated with any of them; each record links back to the notice on its issuing portal. The set is rebuilt nightly, and the counts on this page were taken on 2026-10-01.
Open Counter Uas tenders in United States
Showing 4 of the 4 notices open in this category today. Openness uses the same definition as the United States market page: active, not marked awarded, cancelled, closed or expired, and either closing in the future or published within the last 90 days with no stated closing date.
USAREUR-AF Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) Blanket Purchase Agreement
Level III Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems
FD2030-25-02327
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