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AUVSI Member Spotlight
September 4, 2025 SkyDefense, based in Colorado, manufactures CobraJet™, a low-cost, AI-powered fighter drone and interceptor designed to neutralize hostile uncrewed vehicles.
Value of SkyDefense’s AUVSI MembershipNick Verini, SkyDefense’s President and CEO, says the combination of insights, networking, and visibility is why their organization is an AUVSI member:“AUVSI keeps us ahead of the curve with the latest technology and use cases, makes it easy for us to meet new potential partners, investors, suppliers, and customers, and will help promote us and amplify our success in our professional community.”
Exciting Industry DevelopmentsAccording to Verini, the CobraJet platform is made possible by recent developments in machine learning:“[It’s] a fighter drone and interceptor that can be armed with air-to-air non-lethal or lethal munitions. For us, the ability to equip our jets with low-cost, on-board AI/ML capability is one of the most exciting developments. This on-board intelligence empowers our CobraJets to detect, identify, track, and intercept hostile drone swarms autonomously, even in an EW environment. AI/ML hardware and software systems will improve dramatically over the next few years, giving our CobraJets even more capabilities, such as natural language communications between the jet and Mission Control.” Industry ChallengesVerini notes that autonomous jets introduce new threats to the safety of military personnel:“With autonomy comes risks of ‘friendly fire.’ When armed with lethal munitions, our jets become deadly unmanned flying weapons, and a human must remain in the loop to ensure that there are no ‘mistakes,’ either in the air or on the ground. We believe that the future ability of our jets and other unmanned aerial combat vehicles to communicate in natural language will help minimize this threat.”
SkyDefense’s Role in the Industry’s FutureVerini believes that innovations like the CobraJet platform will improve our ability to defend people and infrastructure from hostile uncrewed vehicles:“We envision our C-UAS systems will significantly lower the cost of mitigating hostile unmanned (aerial, surface, and ground) systems. [They will] protect public venues, infrastructure, military facilities, borders, ports, oil refineries, and power plants from attack. Even the “Golden Dome” missile and radar systems need protection from operators who could covertly move small UAS near a target and evade early detection.”
Exciting Industry DevelopmentsAccording to Verini, the CobraJet platform is made possible by recent developments in machine learning:“[It’s] a fighter drone and interceptor that can be armed with air-to-air non-lethal or lethal munitions. For us, the ability to equip our jets with low-cost, on-board AI/ML capability is one of the most exciting developments. This on-board intelligence empowers our CobraJets to detect, identify, track, and intercept hostile drone swarms autonomously, even in an EW environment. AI/ML hardware and software systems will improve dramatically over the next few years, giving our CobraJets even more capabilities, such as natural language communications between the jet and Mission Control.” Industry ChallengesVerini notes that autonomous jets introduce new threats to the safety of military personnel:“With autonomy comes risks of ‘friendly fire.’ When armed with lethal munitions, our jets become deadly unmanned flying weapons, and a human must remain in the loop to ensure that there are no ‘mistakes,’ either in the air or on the ground. We believe that the future ability of our jets and other unmanned aerial combat vehicles to communicate in natural language will help minimize this threat.”
SkyDefense’s Role in the Industry’s FutureVerini believes that innovations like the CobraJet platform will improve our ability to defend people and infrastructure from hostile uncrewed vehicles:“We envision our C-UAS systems will significantly lower the cost of mitigating hostile unmanned (aerial, surface, and ground) systems. [They will] protect public venues, infrastructure, military facilities, borders, ports, oil refineries, and power plants from attack. Even the “Golden Dome” missile and radar systems need protection from operators who could covertly move small UAS near a target and evade early detection.”
Pentagon Establishes Joint Interagency Task Force to Deliver Affordable C-sUAS Capabilities
UAS Vision - C-UAS News on September 1, 2025 by The Editor.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that he has directed Army Secretary Daniel P. Driscoll to formally establish a joint, interagency task force to counter hostile unmanned aerial systems, commonly referred to as drones.
“Our job here at the Pentagon — when you think about it — is to prepare for the threats of the future and build a force to match them, and defeat them, and outpace them,” Hegseth said via a video message released to the public.
“And there’s no doubt that the threats we face today from hostile drones grow by the day,” he added.Noting that hostile UAS are being operated overseas and at our borders while seeking to harm U.S. warfighters, bases and even the sovereignty of the national airspace, Hegseth said the new task force — Joint Interagency Task Force 401 — will be a unified team that will seek to bring together the best talent from multiple government agencies to counter UAS threats and restore control of the skies.
“It’s called counter-UAS — counter-unmanned aerial systems — and America will be the best at it,” Hegseth said.Although the secretary did not comment on the estimated length of time before the task force will be operational, he did say the Pentagon is currently moving quickly to cut through bureaucracy and consolidate resources, so as to empower it with “the utmost authority to outpace our adversaries.”He added that DOD is working to deliver real solutions and ensure American airspace remains secure at home, abroad and anywhere troops are stationed.
“They deserve to be defended by the best,” Hegseth said.
To ensure that American airspace remains secure, Secretary Hegseth directed Secretary of the Army to formally establish the Joint Interagency Task Force 401 (JIATF 401) — a new, unified team that will bring together our best talent from across all agencies to counter these threats and restore control of our skies. The Task Force will report to the Deputy Secretary of Defense, to better align authorities and resources to rapidly deliver Joint C-sUAS capabilities to America’s warfighters, defeat adversary threats, and promote sovereignty over national airspace.Source: Department of Defense
Pentagon Forms New Task Force to Fast-Track Counter-Drone Capabilities
Defense News
By Jen Judson - August 28, 2025
The Pentagon is scrapping its old playbook for defending against small drones, moving beyond years of evaluations and studies toward a model that comes with new money and authority geared to field capability faster, according to a Thursday memo from the defense secretary.The directive from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the formation of the Joint Interagency Task Force 401 (JIATF 401) to “better align authorities and resources to rapidly deliver [joint counter-small unmanned aircraft system] capabilities to America’s warfighters, defeat adversary threats and promote sovereignty over national airspace,” the memo states.
Hegseth also directed the Army secretary to disestablish the Joint Counter-small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Office, or JCO, which was created in 2019 and led by the Army. It will cease to exist once JTIAF 401 is established, the memo notes.The unit that blends operational, acquisition and interagency roles under a single command will be empowered with procurement authority, flexible funding and streamlined personnel authorities, operating under the oversight of the deputy secretary of defense.
The move comes as U.S. forces in the Middle East and Eastern Europe face increasingly sophisticated drone swarms from state and non-state actors. Cheap, disposable quadcopters and fixed-wing models have been used to knock out armored vehicles, overwhelm air defense and harass bases at a fraction of the cost of defending against them. Ukraine’s daring drone attacks against Russian warplanes on Russian soil in Operation Spiderweb earlier this summer served as a wake-up call in modern warfighting.
The JCO made some headway by narrowing the Pentagon’s crowded field of more than three dozen drone defense prototypes to a handful of approved systems, running joint demonstrations at Yuma Proving Ground— which helped several companies gain traction in the military — and establishing common training and testing protocols. But critics say the office lacked the teeth to buy and deploy gear quickly and was hamstrung by the Pentagon’s budget cycle. The new task force aims to fix that. JIATF 401 will be able to direct procurement decisions, allocate up to $50 million per initiative and hire outside the normal federal process to pull in technical experts.
It will also consolidate work on drone forensics, exploitation and replication programs and tie into the Defense Innovation Unit’s Replicator 2 initiative on mass-produced autonomous systems, according to the directive. Additionally, the task force will have 30 days after initiation to make recommendations on establishing a dedicated C-sUAS test and training range.The reorganization is designed to compress timelines from years to months.“We’re moving fast — cutting through bureaucracy, consolidating resources, and empowering this task force with the utmost authority to outpace our adversaries,” Hegseth said in a statement.
The new task force could help reshape a growing market projected to reach tens of billions of dollars over the next decade. Companies that won spots in JCO-sponsored demos, from directed-energy and high-power microwave startups to electronic-warfare specialists, will now face a more centralized buyer with discretionary funding that could keep competition high and fast-paced.The task force will undergo a formal review after 36 months, giving Congress and the Pentagon a chance to assess whether the new organization delivers.
CobraJet Nvidia AI-powered drone killer takes out 'overwhelming enemy drone incursions' at up to 300mph
News - Tom’s HardwareBy Jowi Morales August 17, 2025
Defense startup SkyDefense LLC just launched an autonomous combat drone designed to take out enemy drone swarms at a much lower cost than traditional weapon systems. The company calls it the CobraJet — an uncrewed aerial vehicle (basically, a drone) designed for C-UAS (counter-unmanned aircraft system) missions. The drone combines Teledyne FLIR electro-optical and infrared sensors that do not contain restricted foreign parts, and Nvidia AI chips, allowing the drone to process the information that it sees with onboard sensors. A different kind of VRAMThe CobraJet is also equipped with its proprietary Visual Realtime Area Monitoring (VRAM) system, allowing ground commanders to monitor the drone during autonomous operations and communicate with and control it, if needed. This gives its operator the option to let it operate on its own during reconnaissance, patrol, and identification, but still have a human making decisions when required. It can also use the same technology to communicate with other CobraJet units, allowing them to act together as a single entity to protect against enemy swarms. Aside from its AI brain, the CobraJet also boasts an internal weapons bay and external hardpoints, allowing it to carry kamikaze drones, small missiles, or even fragmentation projectiles. It can also be modified to carry precision bombs and loitering munitions, making it a multirole drone. Its external design mimics that of the U.S.’s latest air superiority and multirole fighters, the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II, with vertical take-off and landing capabilities and thrust vectoring nozzles. This means it can operate from the back of a truck and have improved maneuverability, allowing it to go toe-to-toe with small and nimble drones. Asymmetric warfare answered?CobraJet is SkyDefense’s solution to the emerging threat of drone swarms on the modern battlefield. These small and cheap weapons are widely used in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with the defending Ukrainians effectively using drones to initially counter the larger Russian army. Today, both sides in the conflict use UAVs, and actions on the battlefield highlight the U.S.’s need to develop a cost-effective counter.While existing weapons like surface-to-air missiles and air-to-air missiles can engage drones, there’s often a huge mismatch in price between these two platforms. Missiles often cost between half a million to more than $4 million — while you can buy a cheap drone for just $200, with the more sophisticated ones, like Iran’s Shahed-136, only costing $20,000. You can also send up a platoon of combat choppers to engage a drone swarm with guns, but you’re risking several multi-million-dollar weapon platforms to combat cheap suicide drones.
“Our USA-made CobraJets can communicate and coordinate as a flight team, enabling them to operate as an AI-powered unmanned Air Force,” said SkyDefense LLC President Nick Verini. “This team approach increases the effectiveness of the squadron while also significantly reducing the costs of destroying a swarm of enemy drones.” SkyDefense LLC hasn’t released the unit cost of the CobraJet, but it’s going to be so much more affordable than the fighter jets it looks like, and the missiles they carry. The company is offering the drone to law enforcement, Homeland Security, and the U.S. military, giving them the ability to protect against hostile drone swarms without needing to spend copious amounts of money to take down such cheap weapons.
Defense startup SkyDefense LLC just launched an autonomous combat drone designed to take out enemy drone swarms at a much lower cost than traditional weapon systems. The company calls it the CobraJet — an uncrewed aerial vehicle (basically, a drone) designed for C-UAS (counter-unmanned aircraft system) missions. The drone combines Teledyne FLIR electro-optical and infrared sensors that do not contain restricted foreign parts, and Nvidia AI chips, allowing the drone to process the information that it sees with onboard sensors. A different kind of VRAMThe CobraJet is also equipped with its proprietary Visual Realtime Area Monitoring (VRAM) system, allowing ground commanders to monitor the drone during autonomous operations and communicate with and control it, if needed. This gives its operator the option to let it operate on its own during reconnaissance, patrol, and identification, but still have a human making decisions when required. It can also use the same technology to communicate with other CobraJet units, allowing them to act together as a single entity to protect against enemy swarms. Aside from its AI brain, the CobraJet also boasts an internal weapons bay and external hardpoints, allowing it to carry kamikaze drones, small missiles, or even fragmentation projectiles. It can also be modified to carry precision bombs and loitering munitions, making it a multirole drone. Its external design mimics that of the U.S.’s latest air superiority and multirole fighters, the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II, with vertical take-off and landing capabilities and thrust vectoring nozzles. This means it can operate from the back of a truck and have improved maneuverability, allowing it to go toe-to-toe with small and nimble drones. Asymmetric warfare answered?CobraJet is SkyDefense’s solution to the emerging threat of drone swarms on the modern battlefield. These small and cheap weapons are widely used in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with the defending Ukrainians effectively using drones to initially counter the larger Russian army. Today, both sides in the conflict use UAVs, and actions on the battlefield highlight the U.S.’s need to develop a cost-effective counter.While existing weapons like surface-to-air missiles and air-to-air missiles can engage drones, there’s often a huge mismatch in price between these two platforms. Missiles often cost between half a million to more than $4 million — while you can buy a cheap drone for just $200, with the more sophisticated ones, like Iran’s Shahed-136, only costing $20,000. You can also send up a platoon of combat choppers to engage a drone swarm with guns, but you’re risking several multi-million-dollar weapon platforms to combat cheap suicide drones.
“Our USA-made CobraJets can communicate and coordinate as a flight team, enabling them to operate as an AI-powered unmanned Air Force,” said SkyDefense LLC President Nick Verini. “This team approach increases the effectiveness of the squadron while also significantly reducing the costs of destroying a swarm of enemy drones.” SkyDefense LLC hasn’t released the unit cost of the CobraJet, but it’s going to be so much more affordable than the fighter jets it looks like, and the missiles they carry. The company is offering the drone to law enforcement, Homeland Security, and the U.S. military, giving them the ability to protect against hostile drone swarms without needing to spend copious amounts of money to take down such cheap weapons.
SkyDefense unveils CobraJet fighter drone and interceptor for C-UAS operations
C-UAS Hub
By Jack Overell - August 15, 2025https://cuashub.com/en/content/skydefense-unveils-cobrajet-fighter-drone-and-interceptor-for-c-uas-operations/
SkyDefense Unveils CobraJet AI Fighter Drone for High-Speed Low-Cost Counter-UAS Operations
Defense Industry Europe – August 13, 2025https://defence-industry.eu/skydefense-unveils-cobrajet-ai-fighter-drone-for-high-speed-low-cost-counter-uas-operations/