By: Tuva Siegel, Warrior Editorial Fellow

The Pentagon is working to stay ahead in a world increasingly shaped by drone threats; countering fiber-optic drones is now among the newest challenges to solve. An exercise at Eglin Air Force Base, cited in the Department of War guide Small Drones, Big Problems, helped the military identify gaps in its defenses, combining sensors like acoustic detectors and radar with lasers and interceptor systems to combat these jamming-resistant threats.

Axon Vision recently announced the release of ForceField, an AI-enabled “detect-to-defeat” system against First-Person View (FPV) and Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) drones. Developed through EDGE AI technologies, Axon claims ForceField successfully “integrates detection, threat understanding, and rapid response into a single operational system” to counter the most prominent modern battlefield threat: drones.

ForceField is specifically designed to counter fiber-optic-controlled FPV drones, as they are resistant to traditional jamming because they are controlled via connected cables and avoid radio links. According to Axon, ForceField uses passive sensors to detect aerial threats both day and night and can operate independently, eliminating the need to integrate multiple systems. The rapid function of this system is better understood through its “Detect, Understand, Respond” operation cycle. First, a 360-degree sensor detects FPV drones; then ForceField classifies and prioritizes the most urgent threat; lastly, the weapon system is automatically triggered to address the threat while maintaining a man-on-the-loop control mechanism. The EDGE AI capabilities used within the operation cycle have long been developed through the years and tested in various Israeli Ministry of Defense programs: “The company completed development of the solution following a series of comprehensive live-fire trials conducted in operationally representative scenarios…and demonstrated the system's ability to detect, track, and neutralize aerial threats in real time,” explains the company. 

The Pentagon further explored the fiber-optic challenge by examining the October 2025 joint operational and homeland defense exercise at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. During this exercise, the effectiveness of existing counter-drone capabilities was tested against a range of realistic threats. The unique realism of this exercise set it apart from other similar tests: “The threat scenarios provided a realistic depiction of evolving adversarial drone operations. The scenarios consisted of different drones, ranging from small to medium to large, and multiple aerial axes of advance and threat profiles,” states the recently released Pentagon guidebook Small Drones, Big Problems. This allowed military leaders to understand the gaps and limitations of current counter-drone capabilities, something Axon has now done, filling an important niche.

Fiber-optic drones may dodge most traditional countermeasures, as Iran and Russia have both shown, but the exercise showed a way around that, the guide highlights. Ukraine's approach of stacking multiple detection methods together, such as acoustic sensors, computer vision, radar, and light detection and ranging, can still produce reliable, "targetable tracks." From there, those tracks feed into a layered defense of lasers, interceptor drones, small arms, and nets to bring the threat down. Axon's ForceField is now positioning itself as part of that same layered response.

The guide organizes its entire counter-drone approach around what it calls the "Five Ds": detect, deny, disrupt, defeat, and discipline. This framework helps explain where ForceField actually fits. Since fiber-optic drones can't be denied or disrupted through jamming, everything comes down to detect and defeat. ForceField's passive sensors and EDGE AI handle the detection, building the process described above. Its weapon trigger, kept under a man-on-the-loop mechanism, then wields the defeat side once a threat is confirmed.

On January 12, 2026, Axon announced it had received an order from Leonardo DRS, a U.S. defense technology company, for delivery of its new AI-based system for counter-UAS missions, valued at approximately $350,000. This marks Axon’s shift from a component supplier to a full-system provider. In a July 2026 press release announcing ForceField, Axon CEO Neri Zin stated that this pivot in strategy will help mark “a significant milestone in Axon's evolution, from a company that supplies EDGE AI capabilities to system manufacturers and defense programs to one that develops and markets complete operational solutions built on the same core technologies.”

ForceField is arriving at a moment when the Pentagon itself has acknowledged that jamming alone can't solve the fiber-optic drone problem. Whether Axon's approach becomes a widely adopted answer to that gap or one of several competing solutions is something time and further evaluations will tell.

Tuva Siegel is an Editorial Fellow at Warrior Maven. She studies English at Kenyon College. Tuva is the author of Drömland, a fictional collection of short stories, and is currently studying weapons and military technology.