Motorola Solutions has agreed to acquire D-Fend Solutions, an Israeli counter-drone specialist, for $1.5 billion in cash, the two companies said on June 1. The deal pushes the Chicago-based public-safety giant into one of the fastest-growing segments of security technology and is the largest counter-drone M&A transaction on record.
EnforceAir at the centre of the deal
D-Fend, founded in 2017 and headquartered in Ra'anana, builds radio-frequency systems that detect, classify and take control of unauthorised drones in flight. Its flagship product, EnforceAir, has been deployed thousands of times across more than 30 countries by airports, militaries, prisons and large-event security teams. Unlike jamming or kinetic counter-drone tools, EnforceAir hijacks a rogue drone's command link, lands it intact and preserves evidence for investigators.
Why Motorola is paying up
Motorola said D-Fend is expected to generate roughly $185 million in revenue this year and has grown more than 50% annually over the past three years. The buyer will fold the business into its Safety & Security Technologies group, extending a portfolio that already spans land-mobile radio, video and command-and-control software.
The acquisition follows the U.S. Safer Skies Act – enacted as part of the Fiscal Year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act – which authorises trained state and local law-enforcement agencies to detect, track and mitigate drones that pose public-safety risks. That legal expansion has opened a domestic market that until recently was the preserve of the federal government.
Closing and approvals
Motorola Solutions expects the transaction to close in the fourth quarter of 2026, subject to regulatory approvals in the United States, Israel and other jurisdictions. The companies did not disclose retention arrangements for D-Fend's roughly 300 staff.
Counter-drone goes mainstream
Rogue-drone incidents at airports, sporting events and energy facilities have surged over the past two years, lifting demand for systems that can disarm uncrewed aircraft without firing a shot. The Motorola/D-Fend deal sits alongside a flurry of related deployments tracked in our naval autonomy and FAA Part 108 drone coverage, all pointing to a security stack that increasingly assumes drones in the airspace by default.
Reporting based on coverage from Reuters, Defense Daily, Bloomberg, DroneLife and DroneXL.