U.S. Army Awards $5.2m for Bumblebee V2 Drone Interceptor to Counter Small UAS Threats.

The U.S. Army’s Joint Interagency Task Force 401 awarded Perennial Autonomy a $5.2 million contract for the Bumblebee V2 collision-based counter-drone system, with deliveries beginning in March 2026. The deal signals the Army’s push for a soldier-operated, low-collateral interceptor that can rapidly deploy against the growing small UAS threat.

On February 6, 2026, the U.S. Army’s Joint Interagency Task Force 401 awarded a $5.2 million agreement to Perennial Autonomy for the Bumblebee V2 counter-drone system, positioning it as an immediately fieldable, low-collateral kinetic option for U.S. forces at home and abroad. Deliveries are scheduled to start in March, with the capability slated for an operational assessment by the Army’s Global Response Force, a signal that the service wants a soldier-usable interceptor that can deploy on short notice and work in the complex airspace over modern formations.
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Bumblebee V2 is a soldier-operated FPV interceptor drone that uses onboard recognition and tracking to physically collide with and disable hostile small UAS, delivering a low-collateral, close-range counter-drone kill option for point defense in contested airspace (Picture source: U.S. DoW).

Bumblebee V2 sits in a fast-growing category of drone-on-drone defeat systems that trade explosive effects for controlled contact. Officially described as a next-generation first-person-view multirotor, it neutralizes hostile small unmanned aircraft systems by physically colliding with the target, rendering both aircraft inoperable. That single design choice explains why the Army keeps using the phrase low-collateral. A collision-based interceptor avoids the fragmentation footprint of blast munitions and reduces the risk of a missed shot or a falling unexploded payload near friendly troops, civilian infrastructure, or sensitive sites. It also addresses a hard battlefield truth: electronic warfare remains valuable, but it is not decisive against every drone, especially when adversaries mix autonomous flight modes, hardened links, and cheap throwaway platforms.

The most revealing technical line in the Army’s announcement is not the collision concept, but the software claim. JIATF-401 says Bumblebee V2 is equipped with software that allows it to identify, track, and collide with other drones. In practical terms, that implies an onboard perception and guidance stack able to turn a short-range multirotor into a terminal interceptor: detect a small target against clutter, maintain track through maneuvers, and drive a high closure-rate intercept with minimal operator workload. The Army has not released speed, endurance, or engagement envelope figures, and that omission is likely deliberate because those parameters define what classes of drones it can reliably catch. Still, the FPV framing suggests a design optimized for rapid acceleration, tight turning, and close-in control, with an operator able to steer aggressively while the onboard logic stabilizes the intercept in the final seconds. The sacrifice nature of the kill also reshapes sustainment: units are not paying for exquisite missiles, but they are consuming interceptors, which pushes planners toward bulk buys, simple training pipelines, and field-level replacement.

The Army is telegraphing how it wants this capability used by sending it through the Global Response Force assessment channel and tying it to the newly opened Lt. Gen. James M. Gavin Joint Innovation Outpost at Fort Bragg. The JIOP’s mandate is to bridge tactical problems with rapid solutions by connecting soldiers, industry, and academia in a test-and-adapt loop, and Bumblebee V2 is exactly the kind of system that benefits from iterative tactics and software updates. In the field, expect Bumblebee V2 to be employed as a point-defense effector inside a layered counter-UAS architecture: cueing from local sensors and observers, launching from within the protected footprint, and engaging the last few hundred meters where jammers, small arms, or legacy air defense may be either ineffective or too risky. The Army’s own imagery from Grafenwoehr shows familiarization flights and instructor certification, reinforcing that this is intended to be handled at the unit level, not reserved for a small cadre of specialists.

The procurement also fits a broader strategy shift that created JIATF-401 in the first place. A Pentagon directive establishing the task force argues that the small UAS threat is growing exponentially, that counter-UAS efforts had become fragmented, and that the Department needed a single focal point with expanded authorities to outpace the threat and help restore sovereignty over national airspace. Replicator 2, the initiative JIATF-401 now drives, is explicitly framed as leveraging commercial innovation and fielding counter-UAS quickly rather than building from scratch. Bumblebee V2 complements earlier Replicator 2 purchases like Fortem’s DroneHunter F700 net-capture interceptors, which are optimized for controlled effects and forensics in domestic settings. JIATF-401’s own guidance on protecting critical infrastructure underscores the same logic: defend with layers, think outward beyond the fence line, and combine physical measures with responsive defeat options as the drone threat reshapes security assumptions.

On the question of who else operates Bumblebee V2, there is no public indication yet of foreign military fielding this specific Perennial Autonomy system, and the Army has not disclosed quantities, which suggests the program is still in an assess-and-scale phase. What is clear is that the wider concept is already moving quickly across allied and partner forces. Ukraine’s battlefield has normalized low-cost interceptor approaches, and U.S. reporting around the Bumblebee deal explicitly notes the similarity of tactics used to defeat drones by direct engagement rather than expensive missiles. In Europe, Latvia, Estonia, and Belgium have begun receiving Origin Robotics’ Blaze interceptor UAVs, and Belgium’s procurement was publicly linked to repeated drone incursions around critical sites, highlighting how the same threat set is driving urgent buys beyond the front line.

Written by Evan Lerouvillois, Defense Analyst.

Evan studied International Relations, and quickly specialized in defense and security. He is particularly interested in the influence of the defense sector on global geopolitics, and analyzes how technological innovations in defense, arms export contracts, and military strategies influence the international geopolitical scene.