OM Defence Systems demonstrates X7 interceptor at NATO trials

OM Defence Systems demonstrates X7 counter-drone interceptor across NATO trials, shifting engagements from FPV pilots to operator-supervised autonomy.

UK-based OM Defence Systems is demonstrating the X7 drone interceptor to NATO and British military users and using each event to capture customer requirements, as it moves the counter-drone engagement out of the hands of FPV pilots and into an operator-supervised ground control architecture fed by radar targeting data.

The X7 is being evaluated at technology readiness level 5, with the company targeting TRL 6 in early 2027. No contracts have been awarded. “There is significant interest in the system we are demonstrating,” OM Defence Systems co-founder Oliver Anderson told The Defence Blog.

Through 2026, OM Defence Systems has put the X7 through a sequence of live demonstrations, using each to test the system against operational conditions and collect requirements directly from the military users who would field it.

The company’s end state is a human-in-the-loop or human-on-the-loop system, in which an operator authorises an engagement through OM Defence Systems’ ground control station and proprietary software instead of manually flying an FPV interceptor.

“Our end state is to remove the FPV pilot and let an operator control the engagement via our ground control station. That is what lets us scale the system to protect critical national infrastructure,” Anderson said.

The ground control station accepts feeds from different radars and ingests sensor data using the SAPIENT communications standard, allowing the X7 to take targeting information from any external sensor network rather than depend on a dedicated radar supplied with the interceptor.

The X7 comprises three elements: the interceptor, a networked launch pad and the ground control station. Company material describes the aircraft as a one-way autonomous interceptor capable of speeds above 400 km/h (250 mph) and designed to engage Group 1, Group 2 and Group 3 unmanned aircraft.

The system operated in full autonomous mode at TRL 5 during field demonstrations with the British Army in March 2026, according to OM Defence Systems. The X7 is designed and engineered in the UK and tested in Europe and Ukraine.

OM Defence Systems took the ground control station to NATO’s Technical Interoperability Exercise, TIE26, held from May 11 to 22, where Anderson said the company tested the robustness of the station and was satisfied with its performance. It followed with NATO’s BATT26 event in Latvia, which ran from Aug. 4 to 14. In each case, the company says, the objective was the same: demonstrate the architecture under realistic conditions and gather feedback from the operators using it.

OM Defence Systems’ work on the X7 centres on moving more of the interception sequence into software and the ground control system, so a human operator can supervise or authorise an engagement while the system manages the flight and targeting.

The X7 is one of several counter-drone products emerging as military users look for ways to intercept unmanned aircraft without assigning an FPV pilot to fly every interceptor.

OM Defence Systems is running the X7 alongside Shadow, a more mature platform the company describes as a TRL 9 infantry support system in use with the Armed Forces of Ukraine. OM Defence Systems reported production of 500 Shadow systems in 2025 and plans for 1,500 in 2026. Anderson said the company took Shadow to PCC6 trials in California and plans to support the UK’s 16 Air Assault Brigade with the system during an exercise in October.

For the X7, the next steps stay focused on demonstration and on turning the requirements gathered at each event into the autonomous engagement architecture the company intends to field.