The Pentagon's counter-drone task force has awarded a contract worth up to $500 million for SkyValor, a "detect and defeat" system built to spot hostile drones and bring them down, according to DefenseScoop.
The deal follows testing at the U.S. border, DefenseScoop reported. The outlet identified CACI as the company behind the system, which is designed to handle both halves of the counter-drone problem: finding small, low-flying aircraft that conventional radar struggles with, and then neutralizing them.
Where SkyValor will actually go is not being spelled out. DefenseScoop reports the system will be deployed to sites the Pentagon describes only as "critical," without naming them. Part of the award comes as an initial task order under a Pentagon effort called Domestic Shield.
That framing is the most notable part of the story. Counter-drone spending has historically been aimed at protecting troops and bases overseas. A domestically oriented program, tested near the border and pointed at unnamed critical sites, signals that the Pentagon increasingly treats cheap commercial drones as a homeland security problem rather than a battlefield one.
The $500 million figure also suggests this is not a pilot project. Contracts at that scale typically cover multiple installations and years of support, not a single demonstration.
DefenseScoop's report does not specify how many sites will receive the system, what technology SkyValor uses to defeat drones, or a delivery timeline.
Why it matters: small drones have gone from hobbyist gadgets to a security concern serious enough that the Pentagon is now buying defenses for targets inside the United States.