Israel's answer to the swarm of cheap, dangerous drones is a robot that catches them in mid-air, and it doesn't rely on jamming at all. The system, called Iron Drone, uses a small interceptor named Raider that launches from a pod once an outside detection system, such as radar, spots a suspicious drone. Guided at first by radar and then by AI vision, Raider locks onto the target, chases it, and fires a net to capture it. A parachute then lowers the captured drone to the ground, so the threat is stopped without blowing it up over a crowded area or scrambling nearby signals.

The technology started with Iron Drone Ltd., an Israeli company founded in 2016, and Airobotics, a subsidiary of Ondas Holdings, completed the acquisition of its assets in March 2023. Ondas later said it was speeding up development of the Raider to meet requirements of the Israel Defense Forces. The company pitches the system for urban areas, airports, and critical infrastructure, where jamming can interfere with civilian communications and navigation. Most of the performance claims so far come from the company itself, and independent test results haven't been widely published. The big question is whether a net-and-parachute interceptor can keep pace as drone threats grow cheaper, faster, and more numerous.