The U.S. military brought about two dozen companies to the Arizona desert to show off the latest technologies to counter enemy drones. Things didn’t always go as planned.

A pair of interceptors took turns trying to down a small white drone but only clipped a small part off before they were forced to return as the target flew on. Intense heat left another drone struggling to take off. And another also hit — but didn’t destroy — its target.

Those snafus underscored the Pentagon’s struggle to catch up to other militaries who have surged ahead of the U.S.‘s fragmented, underfunded counter-drone efforts. The Pentagon now plans to spend at least $7 billion on defenses, ranging from specialized shotguns to the interceptor drones. Some systems faltered in the demonstration at Yuma Proving Ground in September. At times, top officials have admitted the challenges.

In January, then-Army Secretary Dan Driscoll called one such system “f___king terrible” and “a joke” during a town hall at Fort Drum, New York, in a response to a soldier saying his unit had no other counter-drone equipment at the border.

The U.S. can’t wait for counter-drone technology to be perfected. Last month, the military withdrew a dozen B-1B bombers from an air base in Britain over fears about a suspected Iranian drone attack. That followed months of Iranian missile and drone strikes that damaged American bases across the Persian Gulf, prompting commanders to relocate some personnel. Officials are trying to accelerate the process by coordinating testing across the military services and creating an online marketplace where they can buy counter-drone equipment and get it into troops’ hands faster.

The Yuma counter-drone experiment, dubbed Falcon Peak, focused on addressing the types of drones used by drug cartels along the U.S. southern border, but some of the technologies on display from the roughly 20 companies that attended may also be used against more capable foes such as Iran.

Among the contractors in Yuma was Perennial Autonomy, which already has a deal worth up to $500 million for its counter-drone systems, one of the Pentagon’s largest for the weapons.

Perennial’s Merops interceptors, designed to hit Iranian Shahed drones, have been used with success in Ukraine, where the company works with troops to make daily updates.

But its Bumblebee interceptor was one of the two that only clipped the target in Yuma. A software tweak ensured the units destroyed their target on a later outing, according to a person familiar with the testing.

While Perennial Autonomy participated in Falcon Peak, the company would not comment on its technology. Representatives there covered their faces with bandannas and declined to speak with reporters.

Harmattan AI tested its autonomous Gobi ground-based, pod-launched interceptor at Yuma and faced similar challenges. One of its interceptors struck a target but failed to destroy it, returning to home base for repairs. A second was quickly launched and brought down the target in under two minutes, company representatives said.

Falcon Peak gave companies a chance to rapidly adapt their systems, mirroring the relentless evolution of drones and countermeasures on Ukraine’s battlefields.

At Yuma, mountains, birds and other clutter confused sensors, while extreme heat and glare interfered with equipment.

Some systems initially encountered difficulties detecting targets but improved after software adjustments, said Robert Fletcher, a test official at Yuma.

During a visit to a border position nearby, soldiers struggled to launch their own reconnaissance drone after it sat in direct sunlight in temperatures near 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Relatively new to fighting drones, they were still using the systems that Driscoll had denounced in January.

"We're getting a lot of value out of the southern border, but to say that it's a battlefield-relevant environment is a stretch, probably," said Mike Wior, founder of Allen Control Systems, which participated in the Yuma demonstration.

The experiment also tested how equipment from competing companies could work together. Radar and cameras were connected through Anduril Industries’ Lattice software, allowing one company’s sensor to detect a drone and direct another company’s weapon toward it.

Despite the urgent need, the Pentagon has been slow to commit money to counter-drone defenses. In September, it established contracts allowing it to buy as much as $7 billion in counter-drone equipment, but so far has committed just $50 million toward actual purchases.

As a potential quick solution to address vulnerable installations stateside, U.S. Northern Command displayed its Flyaway Kit at Yuma. The Anduril-developed weapon, consisting of interceptor drones, electronic warfare systems and infrared sensors, can deploy within 24 hours of a drone incursion.

Companies are hoping that with the passage of the fiscal 2027 budget more purchases will be made to produce at scale, said Jon Gruen, chief executive officer of Fortem Technologies, a company focused on counter-drone technology.

“I think we’re at a watershed moment,” he said. “The budgets are going to hit. They’re going to buy equipment. They’re going to start figuring out what they really like and don’t like.”

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