If we’ve learned one thing from the war in Iran (and, like, years of watching Ukraine), it’s the very real and very urgent need for cheaper air defense systems that can ease the burden on the super-pricey, exquisite interceptors that make up the bulk of America’s defensive capabilities.
At the Farnborough International Airshow in the UK this morning, New Mexico-based solid rocket motor (SRM) startup X-Bow Systems unveiled its answer to that need, rolling out the Buckler interceptor, designed to down Shahed-type Group 3 drone threats at “supersonic” speed, all at an appealing and mass-procurable sub-$100,000 price point.
X marks the spot: X-Bow is quickly making quite a name for itself in the world of propulsion and rocket motors. The company’s on a mission to shake up the super-consolidated solid rocket motor market with a fully integrated manufacturing approach, building all the boomy and zoomy tech using its own patented propellant and additive manufacturing process.
- X-Bow’s SRMs come in all different sizes, ranging from a 34.5-inch motor (designed for big ol’ missiles, hypersonics, and space launch) to smaller motors and rocket-assisted take-off (RATO) kits for Group 3 UAVs, namely Aevex’s 200lb Disruptor drone, which it’s produced thousands of RATO kits for.
- Lockheed also tapped the startup as a “new independent supplier of SRMs and other services for their existing and future programs” after leading X-Bow’s $105M Series B funding round last year.
Medieval missiles: The Buckler—named after a small shield a medieval defender would use to parry and deflect an incoming blow—takes the startup’s know-how in rocket motor-making and propulsion into the white-hot interceptor world.
- X-Bow is building the Buckler’s airframe, solid-rocket motor, and propellant all in-house. The company says that vertical integration is aimed at solving the “industrial-base bottleneck defense leaders cite as the top constraint on scaling interceptors.”
- It’s designed to take out Group 3 drones (like the Shahed-136 UAVs that have wreaked havoc and strained exquisite interceptor stockpiles in Ukraine and the Middle East) “at supersonic speeds,” according to X-Bow, at a sub-$100,000 price point.
- It can also take out rotary aircraft and provide point-defense against light cruise missiles, the company told Tectonic, and it’s already been flown in flight tests.
Big need, big appetite: For the Pentagon, the more low-cost interceptors coming onto the market, the merrier.
- The US has burned through up to 300 THAAD and 1,430 Patriot interceptors in Iran, while deliveries of the systems numbered just 92 and 172 in FY 2026, according to a CSIS analysis in late May.
- That’s pretty unsustainable, and officials are moving fast to field new solutions. At a meeting last month with about 100 startups and primes, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll challenged companies to develop cheaper interceptors ready for demonstrations within six months and procurement within a year.
- On Friday, the Air Force launched a solicitation for low-cost ground-based interceptors able to “engage both cruise missiles and Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) groups 1-5 threats” and “seamless command and control (C2) system integration for rapid sensor data dissemination and weapons cueing.”
Needless to say, the demand signal is strong, and Buckler is X-Bow’s “answer to the call from the U.S. and its allies: affordable capability, at scale,” founder and CEO Jason Hundley said in a statement.
“You can’t win a war of attrition trading million-dollar interceptors against thousand-dollar threats,” he added. “Buckler has flown, it comes in under $100,000, and we build its airframe and propulsion ourselves—the part of the industrial base that is so stressed by today’s munitions demands.”
The Pentagon has already requested a briefing on the interceptor, per Axios, which first reported the news, so it sounds like this might not be the last we hear about the Buckler and X-Bow’s foray into the drone-downing game.