US Army orders up to $106M of L3Harris VAMPIRE counter-drone systems, low-cost answer to drone swarms
Front-line troops facing swarms of cheap attack drones are getting a low-cost answer at scale. The US Army has ordered up to $106 million of L3Harris $LHX VAMPIRE counter-drone systems, the same kit that has logged over 350,000 operational hours in Europe since 2023.
Cheap, mass-produced attack drones have become one of the most lethal threats facing ground troops, and the United States is now scaling up its answer. The U.S. Army has selected L3Harris $LHX to deliver VAMPIRE counter-unmanned systems in an order worth up to $106 million, part of a layered approach to defending against hostile drones and remotely piloted aircraft. VAMPIRE is a self-contained weapons system that combines advanced reconnaissance with precision strike to destroy incoming drones. L3Harris developed the platform at the start of the war in Ukraine as a low-cost way to counter Russian drone attacks. Since 2023, the technology has logged more than 350,000 operational hours in support of European combat operations, and in 2026 the company moved to high-volume production at its facility in Huntsville, Alabama. The order reflects a broader shift in how modern militaries think about air defense. Expensive interceptor missiles are poorly matched against drones that can cost a few hundred or few thousand dollars each, so the priority has moved toward cheaper, reusable, and rapidly producible systems that can keep pace with the volume of the threat. The VAMPIRE buy is one piece of that layered counter-drone strategy, alongside electronic warfare, directed-energy weapons, and kinetic interceptors now being fielded across the force.