Motorola Solutions to buy D-Fend Solutions for $1.5 billion

Motorola Solutions is spending $1.5 billion to buy D-Fend Solutions, a move that pushes counter-drone systems farther out of the military niche and into day-to-day security planning for airports, data centers and other critical sites. The deal lands as officials and infrastructure operators confront a problem that once looked exceptional but is now increasingly treated as routine: unauthorized drones disrupting operations, exposing vulnerabilities and forcing shutdowns.

D-Fend brings a system built to take control of rogue drones with radio waves rather than by jamming signals or shooting them down. Motorola said the company has thousands of deployments across more than 30 countries and has grown annual revenue by more than 50% over the past three years. D-Fend is expected to generate $185 million in full-year 2026 revenue, a scale that suggests the market is already moving beyond pilot projects and toward repeatable procurement.

The policy backdrop is helping to accelerate that shift. The Safer Skies Act, enacted as part of the FY 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, gives trained and certified state and local law enforcement new authority to detect, track and, where permitted, safely mitigate drone threats. Senate committee material says those counter-drone authorities run through 2031 and are meant to help the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice respond near airports, stadiums and other sensitive locations, including ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

D-Fend’s own history shows how quickly the field has matured. The company was founded in 2017 by Zohar Halachmi, Assaf Monsa and Yaniv Benbenisti. During Black Dart 2019, the Defense Innovation Unit selected EnforceAir after evaluating 16 counter-UAS systems, signaling early confidence from defense buyers. Federal Aviation Administration testing later described EnforceAir as a surgical counter-drone approach designed to protect airport operations without collateral effects on navigation or communications systems. That matters for airports, stadiums, utilities and corporate campuses, where one drone sighting can interrupt travel, public events or operations across an entire site.

The acquisition also fits Motorola’s broader shift from a communications company into a wider security platform provider. Last year, Motorola bought Silvus Technologies for $4.4 billion, adding secure communications and networking for drones to its portfolio. The D-Fend deal would give Motorola the other side of the equation, a way to stop rogue drones as the anti-drone market expands from $2.47 billion in 2026 to a projected $8.42 billion by 2031. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026, pending regulatory approval and other customary conditions.