San Francisco startup claims two-week build for jet interceptor

Y Combinator-backed startup IMPACT Drones says it built a working prototype of its high-speed interceptor drone, called SABLE, in two weeks, according to posts by the company’s two co-founders on social media.

Jasper Lortije, whom the company lists as CEO, and Alessandro Fiume, listed as founder, both posted about the prototype this week. IMPACT Drones incorporated nine weeks ago and is part of Y Combinator’s Summer 2026 batch, according to Fiume’s post.

SABLE is designed to reach 750 km/h (466 mph), Fiume said in the post. That figure differs from the 825 km/h (513 mph) design speed the company gave for SABLE at its public launch on August 4, when it first detailed the interceptor alongside a second system called HUNTER.

San Francisco-based IMPACT Drones unveiled its Air Defense as a Service offering at that August 4 launch. The company builds autonomous interceptor drones that ship inside sealed containers, which the company says can be placed at sites such as data centers, airports and power grids. When onboard sensors detect a hostile drone, an interceptor breaks through the container’s lid, launches and rams the target, guided by onboard visual navigation the company says continues to function when GPS is jammed.

HUNTER is described as a close-range, point-defense interceptor with a top speed of up to 300 km/h (186 mph), using electro-optical and long-wave infrared terminal guidance. The company has said HUNTER’s hardware lineage has been used against Shahed-136, Geran-2 and Gerbera-type drones in Ukraine.

SABLE is described as a longer-range pursuit interceptor built around a turbine engine and delta-wing airframe, intended to catch faster threats before they reach a protected site.

“SABLE and HUNTER are the cornerstones of our Air Defense as a Service offering, built to protect critical infrastructure,” Lortije wrote.

“Incoming drones keep getting cheaper and faster. Air defense has to catch up,” Fiume wrote.

“If you are responsible for protecting a data center, airport, or power grid, my inbox is open,” Fiume wrote.

IMPACT Drones is based in San Francisco and has two employees, according to its Y Combinator company profile. Lortije has an aerospace engineering background and previously worked on GNC systems, according to earlier reporting by Data Center Dynamics. Fiume previously co-founded Aerointel, a company building visual navigation and targeting software for autonomous interceptors, and lists $300,000 in revenue from European defense customers on his Y Combinator profile.

The company has said it holds more than $180 million in signed letters of intent, according to its Y Combinator listing. IMPACT Drones has targeted the third quarter of 2026 for pilot deployments of its interceptors, according to Data Center Dynamics.

The company has tied its launch to a string of drone and missile strikes on data centers this year. Data Center Dynamics reported that Amazon Web Services facilities in the United Arab Emirates were struck in March, with a further facility in Bahrain damaged in a nearby strike, and that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps later claimed a cruise missile strike on an AWS data center in Bahrain in late July.

IMPACT Drones has argued that existing air defense systems cost too much to use against low-cost drones. On its Y Combinator profile, the company says legacy effectors cost $1 million or more per shot against drones it values at around $30,000, and that its own interceptors are built to cost closer to the price of the threats they are meant to stop.