MBDA and Fortem expand counter-drone partnership, add FireThorn interceptor against Shahed-type drones

TLDR

• MBDA and Fortem Technologies expanded their counter-drone partnership, turning a 2024 collaboration into a commercial offer.¹²
• A European missile maker now sells an American firm's interceptors directly, and the two jointly offer the new FireThorn interceptor.¹²
• FireThorn is designed to counter one-way attack drones, including Shahed and Geran variants.²

MBDA and Fortem Technologies announced an expanded counter-uncrewed aircraft systems (C-UAS) partnership on 12 October, turning a 2024 technical collaboration into a commercial offer across Europe and allied markets.¹² Under the arrangement, MBDA moves from integrator to supplier, selling Fortem's DroneHunter autonomous interceptors directly to its defence and government customers as an added layer within their existing air defence networks, rather than requiring operators to deploy separate systems.¹²

The partnership's centrepiece is FireThorn, a new autonomous interceptor the two companies co-developed, combining Fortem's high-speed, radar-guided airframe with an MBDA warhead approved for NATO use.¹² FireThorn is designed to counter one-way attack drones, including Shahed and Geran variants, as well as Orlan reconnaissance drones, and MBDA is displaying it at its AUSA 2026 booth in Washington, D.C.¹ DroneHunter, by contrast, disables and recovers drones through net capture rather than an explosive engagement, making it suited to environments like military installations and populated areas where minimising collateral damage matters.²

The expanded deal builds on DroneHunter's 2024 integration into MBDA's SKY WARDEN ground-based air defence system, which the company first launched at the IDEX exhibition in Abu Dhabi in February 2021.¹ Fortem separately secured $25 million from Lockheed Martin on 22 April 2026 to at least double interceptor production at its Lindon, Utah facility.¹ The expansion comes as Russia's mass use of Shahed-type one-way attack drones against Ukraine pushes interceptor drones into allied inventories; Ukrainian officials reported more than 2,500 jet-powered Shahed launches in August 2026 alone.¹

Why it matters: a European missile maker selling an American interceptor company's hardware directly into its own air defence networks shows how fast the Shahed threat is reshaping normal defence-industry boundaries, turning former technology partners into joint suppliers.