U.S. Scales VAMPIRE Counter-UAS Production to Boost Low-Cost Air Defense Against Drone Swarms.

L3Harris has launched high-volume production of its VAMPIRE counter-drone system in Alabama, accelerating deployment of a combat-proven anti-UAS capability.

Announced March 24, 2026, the Huntsville production line increases the output of mobile, laser-guided 70 mm rocket systems designed to detect and destroy hostile drones at short range. The scalable facility supports vehicle-mounted and containerized variants, allowing rapid delivery as demand grows. L3Harris positions the ramp-up as a response to sustained drone attrition seen in Ukraine and emerging threats to U.S. forces and infrastructure worldwide.

Read also: AUSA 2025: With its VAMPIRE system, L3Harris turns U.S. Army’s light vehicle into a drone killer.

L3Harris is accelerating production of its VAMPIRE counter-UAS system in Huntsville, boosting delivery of mobile laser-guided 70 mm rocket launchers designed to detect and destroy hostile drones at lower cost and with greater tactical flexibility for U.S. and allied forces (Picture source: L3Harris).

Announced on March 24, 2026, the new line includes flexible assembly, testing, and installation capacity for vehicle-mounted and containerized configurations, and L3Harris says it can expand output as demand grows. That is the real purpose of the ramp-up: to put more counter-drone systems into service quickly enough to match a persistent operational threat that has already shaped combat in Europe and increasingly threatens U.S. personnel and infrastructure elsewhere.

The armament being fielded faster is not a single missile but a modular kill chain. VAMPIRE is a self-contained precision-guided weapons package that can be installed on many vehicles, vessels, or containerized mounts, combining the WESCAM MX-10D RSTA electro-optical/infrared sight on a telescopic mast with the Widow mission management system, which is FAADC2-compliant and built to integrate sensors, radios, navigation, and additional effectors. In practice, that architecture turns a light tactical platform into a mobile short-range counter-UAS node able to search, designate, and engage without waiting for a larger air-defense battery to respond.

Its principal interceptor remains the AGR-20A APKWS, a 70 mm laser-guided rocket derived from the Hydra 70 family. BAE Systems describes APKWS as a guidance kit that converts unguided 2.75-inch rockets into precision weapons; published specifications place the all-up round at about 35 pounds, with semi-active laser guidance and a typical ground-launch envelope measured in only a few kilometers, which aligns with L3Harris’ own claim that VAMPIRE can engage aerial targets out to six kilometers when paired with the company’s proximity fuze. That combination is important because it gives operators a far more affordable shot option than expending larger and much more expensive surface-to-air missiles against every drone raid.

So, what drones is this production surge really for? Officially, L3Harris frames VAMPIRE against small drones and remotely piloted aircraft, while BAE says the proximity-fuzed APKWS configuration can engage Class 2 and Class 3 drones. In battlefield terms, that means the system is tailored for the mass of the contemporary drone threat: reconnaissance UAVs, attack drones and one-way strike systems large enough to threaten troop concentrations, logistics sites, airfields, and fixed infrastructure, yet cheap enough that adversaries can launch them in numbers. The aim is to restore a favorable cost-exchange ratio by using a precise but comparatively low-cost interceptor against targets that do not justify a Patriot- or NASAMS-class shot.

Tactically, VAMPIRE offers three advantages that matter to maneuver forces. First, it compresses the sensor-to-shooter chain because the operator sees, designates and fires from the same platform. Second, the mast-mounted EO/IR package and laser designator let the crew operate from concealed or offset positions while still handing targets to other shooters, which supports distributed air defense. Third, the system is platform-agnostic and reloadable within minutes, allowing commanders to place counter-drone protection on trucks, light tactical vehicles or rapidly deployed containers rather than waiting for scarce dedicated SHORAD assets. That is why Ukraine was an early operational fit, and why L3Harris says VAMPIRE has had an immediate wartime impact there.

For U.S. forces, faster delivery of more VAMPIRE systems would not mean “more drones” in the inventory; it would mean more anti-drone capacity, more defended locations, and more magazine depth at the tactical edge. A force with more VAMPIRE units can protect more convoy routes, ammunition points, expeditionary bases, ports, radar sites and forward command posts simultaneously, while also preserving high-end interceptors for cruise missiles, aircraft, and other premium threats. In other words, production scale directly translates into survivability, readiness and operational endurance. Instead of concentrating protection around a few critical nodes, commanders can spread it across a wider battlespace.

There is also a broader industrial and programmatic signal in this announcement. L3Harris expanded the VAMPIRE family in 2025 into specialized land, maritime, airborne, and electronic-warfare variants, and the company says artificial intelligence and machine learning are being applied to detect and defeat smaller, more elusive threats faster. A February 2026 live-fire in Poland also showed that VAMPIRE can integrate additional 70 mm guided rockets beyond APKWS, after the system successfully fired Thales Belgium’s FZ275. For Army Recognition readers, that growth arc connects directly with our previous coverage of VAMPIRE aboard GM Defense’s Infantry Squad Vehicle, our report on the FZ275 live-fire in Poland, and our analysis of the broader U.S. counter-drone push.

The strategic meaning of the Huntsville ramp-up is therefore clear. The United States and its allies are no longer treating counter-UAS as a niche requirement; they are industrializing it as an everyday battlefield necessity. In a threat environment defined by persistent drone reconnaissance, saturation raids and low-cost one-way attacks, the side that can field affordable interceptors in quantity gains more than extra hardware: it gains time, coverage, staying power, and the freedom to keep higher-end air defenses focused on higher-end targets. That is exactly the capability VAMPIRE’s faster production is meant to deliver.