“Sub-Second Detect- To-Fire”: Futuristic Dome Turret Could Be US Military’s Answer To Drone Swarms

Picket Defense Systems is developing a next-generation counter-drone turret designed to eliminate the delays conventional systems face when targeting fast-moving, one-way attack drones or incoming swarms. This is a major vulnerability confronting the US military and allied forces as drone threats proliferate across modern battlefields that Picket plans to solve.

Its Inferno RTC uses a 54-barrel hemispherical array that continuously maintains 360-degree coverage, allowing the turret to select and fire the optimal barrel without needing to rotate and lock onto the target first.

“Fixed multi-barrel hemispherical array — no slewing delay. Sub-second detect- to-fire. No dead zones, no blind spots, no reaction time,” Picket wrote in a slide deck.

Defense Blog recently explained why Picket’s 54-barrel hemispherical array could represent the next evolution in turret design for defeating fast-moving drone swarms:

The aiming latency problem the Inferno is designed to solve is one of the most technically challenging aspects of close-in drone defense, and it has become increasingly urgent as adversaries have adopted tactics specifically designed to exploit it.

Conventional counter-drone gun systems, whether mounted on vehicles or fixed at a site, must physically slew a barrel to point at an incoming threat before firing, a process that takes measurable time even on fast-actuating electromechanical systems. Against a single drone approaching at moderate speed, that delay is manageable.

Against a coordinated swarm of fast-moving targets approaching from multiple directions simultaneously, it creates engagement sequencing problems that single-barrel systems have no mechanical solution for.

The Inferno’s continuously rotating architecture eliminates that sequencing problem by having a barrel already in approximately the right position for any threat vector at any moment.

Picket appears to be targeting the civilian counter-drone market with a dual-use turret designed for critical infrastructure, data centers, energy facilities, airports, stadiums, and commercial ports.

Our late-January note, titled “Explosion in AI Data Center Buildouts Will Demand Next-Gen Counter-Drone Security,” revealed a shocking reality that many high-value assets around the world remain largely vulnerable to low-cost kamikaze drones.

About a month later, we published a report that showed the first-ever data center in the world was hit by an Iranian attack drone in the Gulf region. This was a major wake-up call for the US, hyperscalers, militaries, and other governments that are now racing to harden airspace against these small but deadly threats.

Related:

• US Military Races To Harden Strategic Nuclear Bases With Counter-Drone AI Shield

What we suspect is coming down the pipe is a procurement supercycle for drone and counter-drone systems, which we believe is already in the early chapters and will accelerate in 2027. How to profit.