Fortem Technologies Builds the Counter-Drone Stack

Fortem Technologies is building the counter-drone stack from the radar outward. The Lindon, Utah company combines purpose-built sensors, command-and-control software, and autonomous net-capture interceptors in one system. Jon Gruen leads the business as CEO, while co-founder Adam Robertson serves as CTO. The market timing is blunt: inexpensive drones are forcing militaries, governments, airports, and critical-infrastructure operators to rethink what a practical layer of air defense looks like.

The broader implication is bigger than a new defense hardware category. Small autonomous aircraft have changed the cost equation in the sky. The response has to detect low-flying objects, classify them quickly, work when radio-frequency jamming is ineffective, and avoid creating a second hazard for people below. Fortem's bet is that those steps work better when they are engineered as one operating loop.

One Company Across the Detection-to-Interception Loop

Fortem's SkyDome system joins three product families. TrueView sensors provide three-dimensional radar coverage and optical validation. SkyDome Manager correlates sensor data, classifies threats, and gives operators a command-and-control layer. DroneHunter interceptors pursue selected targets and capture them with nets.

That integration is the central product decision. Counter-drone deployments often combine sensors, software, and effectors from different vendors. Each connection introduces latency, compatibility work, and another place for the response chain to fail. Fortem designed the radar, software, and interceptor around the same problem.

The physical response also differs from systems built around missiles, directed energy, or radio-frequency disruption. DroneHunter uses a net to capture a hostile aircraft. Larger targets can descend under a drogue, while smaller ones can be carried away. A human authorizes the response, and the interceptor then conducts the pursuit. That approach is especially relevant around public venues and infrastructure, where debris and uncontrolled descent can turn a successful intercept into another risk.

Radar Was the Starting Point

Fortem was founded in 2016 by Timothy Bean and Adam Robertson. Robertson began working on miniature radar technology in graduate school and now oversees the company's technology roadmap and regulatory work as CTO.

The radar foundation matters because small drones are difficult targets. They fly lower and slower than the aircraft traditional air-defense radars were built to find. Fortem's TrueView family uses compact active electronically scanned array technology and edge processing to detect and track those objects. The same radar data feeds SkyDome's software and helps guide DroneHunter.

This creates a feedback loop across the stack. Field experience can inform sensor design, classification software, interceptor behavior, and operator workflows at the same time. For a threat category that changes quickly, learning across those layers may matter as much as optimizing any single component.

Operational Experience Is Shaping the Product

Fortem says its systems have been deployed in Ukraine, the Middle East, East Asia, and at the U.S. southern border. Associated Press reporting independently documented Fortem drone-hunting systems in Ukraine, while Axios reported allied orders for deployment in Europe and the Middle East.

The company has also moved into U.S. homeland-security programs. Fortem supported counter-drone protection at the 2025 presidential inauguration, and it is one of seven Track 1 prime contractors on a five-year Department of Homeland Security counter-UAS contract vehicle. The vehicle's initial $1.011 billion ceiling belongs to the multi-award program, not to Fortem alone.

Those deployments expose the system to different environments and operating constraints. A military base, an urban public event, and critical infrastructure do not share the same threat model. A useful platform must adapt without forcing every customer to rebuild the entire detection and response chain.

Manufacturing Has Become a Strategic Capability

The company opened a 51,000-square-foot Lindon headquarters and manufacturing facility in June 2025. More than 10,000 square feet is dedicated to manufacturing, with on-site flight testing that lets teams assemble, test, rework, and ship from one location.

At the opening, Fortem reported full-capacity plans for 600 radar units and 40 DroneHunter interceptors per month. Those are company-stated capacity figures, not independently audited production. Still, they show the scale of the operating problem Fortem is preparing to solve.

That problem received another push when Fortem closed a $50 million Series B led by Lockheed Martin in September 2026. The company plans to use the capital to expand manufacturing and global deployment. Lockheed is both investor and integration partner, connecting Fortem's focused counter-drone stack with a much larger defense platform and customer network.

The Team Reflects the Next Stage

Fortem's leadership now spans special operations, radar engineering, manufacturing, finance, federal sales, and customer delivery. Gruen brings military operating experience and prior business-development work at Lockheed Martin. COO Jim Housinger adds air-defense and large-scale operations experience. Robertson keeps the technical center of gravity close to the executive team.

The hiring pattern is equally revealing. Recent openings for radar systems, radio-frequency engineering, and quality assurance point to the less glamorous work of scale: architecture ownership, integration, field validation, inspection, documentation, and supply-chain discipline. Fortem said its Utah team had grown beyond 100 employees when the facility opened.

The company describes its values as customer satisfaction, teamwork, flexibility, integrity, and giving back. Its employee-led Fortem Strong council represents teams across the organization. For candidates, the practical draw is the chance to work across hardware, software, autonomy, and manufacturing on systems already facing real operating conditions.

Why Fortem Matters

Counter-drone defense is becoming an industrial problem. Governments do not only need a clever interceptor or a more sensitive radar. They need systems that can be manufactured, integrated, supported, and improved at the pace of the threat.

Fortem's advantage is not simply that it owns three product lines. It is that those products form a closed loop from detection to decision to physical response. The company's next test is whether it can turn that technical integration into repeatable delivery across very different customers and environments.

The new factory, current hiring, operational deployments, and Lockheed relationship suggest that Fortem is organizing around that test now. If the company succeeds, its most important product may not be any individual radar or interceptor. It may be the operating system that makes them function as one air-defense layer.