Global Ordnance, Sparkz sign supply deal targeting 210,000 drone battery packs

The Army assessed the FD-1 drone interceptor at Ustka Training Area in Poland. Operation Audacious Fury ran Nov. 2–6, 2026. The 5th Battalion, 4th Air Defense Artillery Regiment’s Tactics, Integration and Employment Battery led the internal assessment.¹

The battalion is working toward a training method that other units can use. Staff Sgt. Felix Aguilar, a platoon sergeant with the battery, said the unit sought to develop tactics and a training and certification system for soldiers unfamiliar with flying first-person view drones.¹

The exercise sought cost-effective, lower-tier kinetic magazine depth against Group 1–3 and massed uncrewed aircraft threats. Battalion commander Lt. Col. John Verwiel said the unit could use many systems against massed drone threats while staying on the right side of the cost curve. He said the aim was to avoid using high-end munitions ineffectively.¹

Mountain Horse Solutions, a Global Ordnance company, produces the interceptor. On Oct. 12, it announced a second order from the Army’s Global Tactical Edge Acquisition Directorate. Issued Oct. 8 under an Other Transaction Agreement, the award followed an initial award in the spring.² The Army’s account of the assessment gives no intercept results or unit cost, and Mountain Horse’s announcement gives neither the order quantity nor its value.^1–2

Special Operations Command Korea intends to award Neros Technologies a sole-source contract for Archer Strike drones and the equipment around them.¹ The presolicitation notice, posted Wednesday by an office under U.S. Special Operations Command, describes a commercial buy under FAR 12 with Pyeongtaek, South Korea, as the place of performance.^1–2 Neros says Archer Strike integrates directly with Kraken Kinetics' Terminus strike payloads; the Terminus-LV lines in this notice are trainers and casings.^{1, 5}

The award would put a special operations buyer beside the Army and Marine Corps work Neros announced in November 2025.^{1, 4–5} The 10-inch Archer Strike in this notice is among the drones Neros said it would supply to the Army's Purpose-Built Attritable Systems program.^{1, 5} The company said the Army selected it as one of the program's primary FPV (first-person-view) drone makers.⁵ The Marine Corps work is a delivery order for small drones including kinetic-strike capable FPVs.⁴

Eight drones is a small buy next to Neros' Gauntlet II order.^{1, 3} That order, announced Sept. 30 through the Drone Dominance Program, covers 14,000 drones and explosive payloads. Neros put its value at over $100 million.³