Lockheed Martin Invests $25M in Fortem Technologies to Meet Urgent Demand for Countering UAS Threats

BETHESDA, Md. Lockheed Martin on April 22, 2026 announced a $25 million investment in Fortem Technologies, a global leader in airspace security. This investment, which represents the initial tranche of Fortem’s Series B fundraising round, will enable Fortem to accelerate production at scale and enhance deployment within Lockheed Martin’s Sanctum counter-UAS ecosystem.

Building on an established relationship, the investment advances a jointly developed, integrated approach to counter-UAS that is moving into broader operational deployment.

WHY IT MATTERS

The rapid proliferation of small, cheap and easily acquired unmanned aerial systems has created a new, pervasive threat to military platforms, critical infrastructure and civilian airspace.

• Strategic Operational Advantage: Modern battlefields are increasingly congested with hostile drones that can swarm, loiter or deliver precision payloads. By embedding Fortem’s AI driven detection, tracking and neutralization technology within the Sanctum suite, the U.S. and allied partners gain an instantaneous “killchain” that can suppress drone swarms before they become a kinetic risk.
• Economic Efficiency & Cost Savings: Traditional kinetic interceptors – missiles, rockets and directed energy weapons – are expensive per shot. Fortem’s software centric, low cost sensor platform reduces the cost per engagement by more than 80 % while delivering comparable effectiveness against low observable threats. Scaling production now will generate a sustainable, low maintenance logistics pipeline, delivering measurable savings and enabling more frequent training and readiness cycles.
• All Domain Interoperability: The Fortem solution is open architecture and MOSA compliant, allowing seamless integration not only with Sanctum’s airborne and ground-based nodes but also with allied air defense networks, joint force command and control systems, and emerging data links. This interoperability ensures allies can plug the technology into their own defense architectures without costly redesigns.
• Technology Leadership & Industrial Base Resilience: The partnership accelerates the co-development of next generation AI, edge computing, and high-resolution radar capabilities. By investing in Fortem, Lockheed Martin safeguards a critical component of the national security industrial base, creates high skill jobs, and positions the company at the forefront of the global UAS countermeasure market, Lockheed Martin Proprietary Information Lockheed Martin Proprietary Information projected to exceed $12 billion by 2030. The investment will enable Fortem to at least double manufacturing capacity and create new jobs at its production facility in Lindon, Utah.

EXPERT PERSPECTIVES

“This strategic collaboration will deliver robust mission capability aligned to our customer’s demand for rapidly fieldable solutions that scale in volume and evolve as fast as the UAS threat. This is just the latest example of our commitment to investing ahead of need to deliver at the speed of relevance, and with affordability in mind,” said Stephanie C. Hill, President, Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems.

“Low-cost, increasingly autonomous drone threats are scaling faster than traditional defenses were designed to handle,” said Fortem Technologies CEO Jon Gruen. “Our work with Lockheed Martin reflects a shared recognition that counter-UAS capabilities need to be autonomous, integrated and deployable at scale. Together, we’re taking technology that has already been proven in operational settings and accelerating its deployment to deliver a stronger, more responsive defense against evolving threats.”