U.S. Air Force trains with heavy drone hunter with net gun

The U.S. Air Force has put the Paladin, a heavy counter-drone multirotor built by California-based Zone 5 Technologies, through training with Joint Interagency Task Force 401 at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida on Oct. 8, with the drone carrying a Gen12 counter-drone launcher that fires net rounds to entangle and bring down hostile drones, according to photos and captions released by the base.

Photos from the training show the compact, magazine-fed launcher mounted on a stabilized gimbal beneath the six-rotor drone, with net rounds and a deployed net laid out beside the aircraft. The base said the system uses a net round to bring down drones, giving MacDill an additional option for protecting personnel and infrastructure as part of a layered defense, but the Air Force did not say how many systems took part, whether any live intercepts were carried out, or whether the base plans to buy the Paladin.

Net rounds work by throwing a net into the path of a target drone so that it wraps around the rotors and stops the aircraft from flying, an approach that suits bases and other sensitive sites because it avoids sending bullets or explosive fragments into the area below. MacDill hosts the 6th Air Refueling Wing as well as the headquarters of U.S. Central Command and U.S. Special Operations Command.

The Paladin is a multi-mission drone that Zone 5 describes as a fully autonomous wingman integrated with the Tactical Assault Kit (TAK) mapping and command software used across the U.S. military. It uses a quick-swap payload system, so operators can change it in the field between the counter-drone launcher, a munitions drop, a 7.62 mm (.308-caliber) rifle, and a loudspeaker and spotlight.

Zone 5 markets the counter-drone version as a Low Collateral Effects Interceptor, and the Paladin was the first drone of its kind added to the Department of War’s Blue UAS Cleared List, which approves drones for use across the U.S. military. The company also selected Echodyne’s EchoFlight radar to give the interceptor its own real-time picture of the airspace and the ability to track target drones autonomously.

The training at MacDill also featured the Bumblebee V2, a separate counter-drone system that intercepts hostile drones by ramming them, which the 6th Security Forces Squadron received as a low-cost option for its layered defense.

Bumblebee V2 UAS at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida

Joint Interagency Task Force 401, which Secretary of War Pete Hegseth established in August 2025, is the Department of War’s lead organization for countering small drones and has been testing and fielding systems at U.S. installations to protect them from drone incursions, which have been reported over military bases at home and abroad.

Zone 5 Technologies, founded in 2011 and based in San Luis Obispo, California, also develops the White Spike low-cost interceptor missile for counter-drone and precision strike missions, and the Air Force has not said whether the Paladin will be fielded at MacDill or other bases after the training.