Army orders more Mountain Horse FD-1 counter-drone interceptors in second G-TEAD contract

TLDR

• Mountain Horse Solutions won a second US Army contract for its FD-1 counter-drone interceptor under G-TEAD.¹²
• A second order within a year, driven by soldier feedback, shows rapid-acquisition pathways shortening the fielding-to-upgrade loop.¹
• A human operator authorises every engagement of the single-operator FD-1.¹

Mountain Horse Solutions, a Global Ordnance company focused on unmanned systems and integrated defence solutions, is delivering additional FD-1 interceptors to the US Army under a second contract from the Army's Global Tactical Edge Acquisition Directorate (G-TEAD).¹² The award, issued as an Other Transaction Agreement, follows an initial G-TEAD OTA from earlier this spring, giving the company two awards and a fielded capability within a single year.¹

The FD-1 is a compact, dual-use interceptor built to defeat Group 1 through 3-plus unmanned aircraft systems as well as ground targets. It can be emplaced and airborne in under two minutes, is operated by a single soldier rather than a crew, and is designed either to plug in as the defeat layer behind an existing detection and tracking system or to run as a standalone system.¹ The operator retains positive control throughout an engagement, and every engagement requires human authorisation.¹

Mountain Horse president Bill Allen said G-TEAD let the company fold direct soldier feedback into a faster upgrade cycle than a traditional programme would allow. "Soldiers assessed the FD-1 and told us what needed improvement. We turned those updates around within weeks, and G-TEAD provided a way to buy the revised version without waiting on a requirements cycle," Allen said.¹ G-TEAD, part of the Army's broader Pathway for Innovation and Technology, is built to connect soldier feedback from Accelerated Capability Events directly to acquisition authority at the tactical edge, aiming to close the gap between how fast threats evolve and how fast the Army can field a response.¹

The FD-1 is designed to address a cost mismatch that has strained conventional air defence: cheap, expendable drones fielded in volume against interceptors that often cost far more than the threats they're meant to stop.¹

Why it matters: a second order inside one year, driven directly by soldier feedback rather than a multi-year requirements process, is a concrete example of the Army's newer rapid-acquisition pathways actually compressing the time between fielding a counter-drone system and improving it based on how troops used it.