NATO Counter-Drone Marketplace: 16 Systems From Alta Ares, Axon, Northrop Grumman, OSL UK and Quantum Systems, Bought Without Tender
Brussels, 5 November 2026
Key points
- NATO launched its Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems marketplace on 5 November as part of Drone Edge, the initiative launched at the summit's defence industry forum in Ankara in July
- The NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCIA) ran a competition and selected 16 solutions from five companies: Alta Ares, Axon Enterprise, Northrop Grumman, OSL UK and Quantum Systems; NATO says the selected capabilities are already deployed in allied countries and in Ukraine, and they cover static, transportable and on-the-move systems
- Allies can buy them directly from the NATO catalogue "without any further tender process"; NCIA holds the multi-award framework contracts, which run for 18 months, and NATO intends to hold regular competitions to add newer technology
- NATO has allocated EUR 3.1 million for further testing by nations or NATO commands; separately, allies committed under Drone Edge to invest more than USD 40 billion in counter-drone capabilities over five years
NATO has competed a set of counter-drone systems once on its members' behalf, so that an ally can now buy one without running its own tender.
The mechanism is a pre-competed catalogue. NCIA, which hosts NATO's Counter-UAS Centre of Expertise, selected the systems on experience from NATO and national innovation work and from exercises, and holds the frameworks; an ally ordering from them skips the competition it would otherwise have to run. Purchases are made by allies; NATO's own outlay in the release is the EUR 3.1 million for testing, and the release names the companies but not the 16 systems, and gives no prices or framework ceiling. Two of the five firms are American, one British, one French and one German.
The catalogue shortens contracting; it does not decide where the USD 40 billion goes. The national counter-drone buys in Großwald's record went to suppliers the buyers already had close to hand: Sweden's SEK 8.7 billion GUTE II package largely to Swedish and Nordic firms, Saab, BAE Systems Bofors, Nammo and SISU, and Latvia's mobile interceptor teams to the Latvian makers Origin Robotics and Eraser. None of those firms is among the five in the catalogue Signal No. 184 reported. For allies that have already contracted at home, the marketplace is an alternative; for those without a supplier of their own, or without time for a tender, it is the shorter route, under frameworks valid for 18 months, with further competitions planned.
