Counter-Drone Technology: The Biggest Gap in National Security
A $500 drone can destroy a $10 million tank. Small drone swarms reshaped warfare overnight, and Western nations don't yet have adequate defenses against them.
Counter-drone technology is now the most urgent gap in national security. Every day, footage from the Ukraine-Russia front shows small drones used as one-way attack munitions, destroying tanks, infrastructure, and lives at industrial scale. The cost to the attacker is minimal. The cost to the target can be catastrophic. This is happening now, and Western nations don’t have adequate defenses.
On episode 90, Garrett Smith — founder and CEO of Reveal Technology and a Marine Corps Reserve Lieutenant Colonel — called this the single biggest technology gap in national defense.
How we got here
The escalation followed a clear path. ISIS first used small commercial drones as improvised weapons in Iraq and Syria in the early 2010s — crude, but it proved the concept. The 2020 Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict was the next step: Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 drones destroyed tanks and air defense systems, showing a small nation could neutralize major military assets. Ukraine-Russia brought drone warfare to true industrial scale, with both sides using thousands of first-person-view drones daily. A $500 drone can destroy a $10 million tank. “Every day we see highlight videos from the Ukraine-Russia front where small drones are being used as one-way attack munitions to kill people, destroy lives, destroy infrastructure,” Smith said.
The counter-drone problem stack
Stopping a small drone is harder than it sounds, and most existing solutions address only part of the stack.
| Layer | Challenge |
|---|---|
| Detection | Small drones have minimal radar signatures and fly low to avoid sensors |
| Tracking | Swarms of dozens or hundreds overwhelm single-target systems |
| Identification | Distinguishing hostile from friendly or civilian aircraft in real time |
| Defeat | Neutralizing drones before they reach the target |
Each layer needs different technology — RF sensors, radar optimized for small targets, electronic warfare to jam control links, and kinetic or directed-energy systems to destroy them. The hard part is integrating all of it into a system that works against swarms. A single FPV drone is a nuisance; a semi-autonomous swarm of 500 is something no currently deployed system can reliably stop.
Not just a military problem
The same tactics could target critical infrastructure anywhere. Smith pointed to Ukraine using trucks to transport drones behind Russian lines, then launching semi-autonomous attacks deep in enemy territory. “That could happen for critical infrastructure here in middle America,” he said. “There are civil and military infrastructure projects here that are highly vulnerable… and it doesn’t cost very much money for an adversary to do it.” Power grids, water treatment, pipelines, and communication towers are all potential targets — and traditional perimeter security, built for fences, cameras, and guard posts, was never designed for airborne threats that cost less than a smartphone.
What the West needs to build
Smith argues adequate solutions don’t exist yet, and what’s needed falls into three categories. Better detection at the edge — current systems are built for airports and fixed bases, but the tactical edge needs mobile, low-power detection on handheld devices or small vehicles. Integrated defeat systems — a detection system without a defeat mechanism is an expensive alarm bell; the West needs tightly integrated detect-track-neutralize workflows fast enough for swarms. Scalable, affordable countermeasures — the economics favor the attacker, and if a $500 drone requires a $100,000 missile to stop, the math doesn’t work.
The signal
From 2020 to 2024, investors put $125 billion into defense and dual-use technology, tripling the prior four-year period. Counter-drone sits at the intersection of several hot areas — autonomy, electronic warfare, sensor fusion, edge computing. Founders who can solve even one layer of the stack at a price the military can scale have a clear opportunity. The challenge, as with all defense startups, is the long road to procurement — but building from the tactical edge upward can shorten it considerably.