F4DI designs, develops, and integrates deployable defense systems. Our capabilities are organized by technical domain — counter-UAS, interceptors, UAS platforms, sensors and payloads, AI/autonomy/algorithms, systems integration, and test/demonstration/transition. Each is engineered against real mission constraints, and each connects into the way we deliver: program management, R&D, testing, warfighter engagement, and prototype-to-field development.
Counter-UAS
F4DI designs counter-UAS systems as full kill chains — detection, classification, tracking, decisioning, and defeat — not as isolated components. Our flagship architecture, TR2ICS, is a tethered radio-relay and interceptor platform built to give small units persistent airspace protection against Group 1–3 UAS threats. We integrate passive RF, radar, EO/IR, and acoustic sensing with hard-kill and soft-kill effectors, and we design our own interceptor air vehicles to close the loop at low cost per engagement.
Interceptors
We design, build, and integrate low-cost interceptor air vehicles engineered for high-tempo counter-UAS engagements. Our approach prioritizes cost per shot, airframe simplicity, and the guidance and autonomy needed to acquire, track, and defeat maneuvering UAS targets in contested RF environments. Interceptor development at F4DI is coupled tightly to sensor, launcher, and command-and-control design — the airframe is never optimized in isolation.
UAS platforms
F4DI designs and integrates purpose-built UAS platforms for defense missions — sensing, relay, and effector delivery. We work to NDAA-compliant supply chains, integrate onboard autonomy for degraded-GNSS and RF-denied operation, and design payload interfaces that let program offices swap sensors and mission modules without redesigning the aircraft.
Sensors and payloads
Our sensor and payload work spans passive RF, radar, acoustic sensing, and EO/IR imaging. In partnership with Corlens, F4DI is developing metalens-based fixed-focal, continuous-zoom, and long-wave infrared optics that deliver conventional-lens performance in a fraction of the size, weight, and cost — with a current prototype focused on LWIR thermal surveillance. Payloads are designed to interoperate with the platforms and command systems F4DI integrates, not as standalone science projects.
AI, autonomy and algorithms
F4DI develops the onboard and off-board software that makes platforms mission-effective: target detection and classification, sensor fusion, engagement-quality track formation, terminal guidance, and autonomous behavior for GNSS-denied and communications-denied environments. Our algorithms are written against real mission constraints — latency, size/weight/power budgets, and the reliability standards required for handoff to a weapon system.
Systems integration
F4DI acts as the integrator across sensors, effectors, autonomy, and command-and-control — including subsystems from partner vendors. We own the architecture, the interface control, and the requirements traceability from mission need down to component performance, so the system that ships to test is the system that was designed. Integration is where F4DI’s program-management, engineering, and vendor-management disciplines converge.
Test, demonstration and transition
We build systems to be tested — and to transition. F4DI plans and executes government-authorized test events, supports Integrated Product Team feedback, documents results, and drives the design updates needed to close capability gaps. Our team supports DEVCOM Soldier Center, the Army Research Laboratory, and USASOC-aligned units, including through the Soldier Engineer Exchange Demonstration (SEED), giving developers direct feedback from the operator.
How we deliver
- Program & project management — portfolio oversight, technical baseline, interface control, and vendor coordination across DoD and Mission Partner efforts.
- Research & design — classified and unclassified literature reviews, technology assessments, and design work supporting rapid prototyping and technology transition.
- Testing & technology demonstrations — test-plan review, event coordination, results analysis, IPT feedback capture, and after-action documentation.
- Warfighter engagement — logistics and coordination support to DEVCOM Soldier Center, ARL, and the 19th and 20th Special Forces Groups through SEED.
- Basic & applied research — DoD-facing research on sensor performance, threat characterization, and system vulnerabilities.
- Proof-of-concept development — capability analysis, TDP evaluation, prototype build, and design/prototype/test support.
