Vendor Profile: Fortem Technologies
Fortem Technologies assessment. Radar-first C-UAS with a kinetic interceptor. What TrueView and SkyDome deliver — and where the architecture has limits.
Vendor Profile: Fortem Technologies
Company Snapshot
Fortem Technologies is a Utah-based aerospace company founded in 2013 and headquartered in Pleasant Grove. The company operates in the narrow intersection of three markets: commercial UAS detection, critical infrastructure protection, and military counter-UAS. Fortem is privately held, backed by venture capital and strategic investors, and operates with a lean engineering-first culture. Unlike larger defense contractors, Fortem has maintained focus on C-UAS as a core business line rather than a line item within an air defense portfolio.
The company's founding reflected a specific insight: small UAS were becoming abundant, but no existing radar architecture was optimized for detecting targets smaller than 5 pounds at the ranges and altitudes that matter for security operations. Fortem's founders built a radar from first principles, optimized for small-UAS signatures rather than adapting larger-target radar to the small-UAS problem.
Financially, Fortem has raised approximately $35 million in venture funding (as of 2025) and generates revenue through system sales, subscription services (cloud analytics), and international licensing agreements. The company does not disclose exact revenue figures, but estimates place the operation in the $50–75 million annual range. Fortem maintains development facilities in Utah and customer support operations in multiple countries.
What They Make
Fortem's C-UAS portfolio centers on three integrated components:
TrueView Radar: A solid-state, phased-array radar optimized for detection and tracking of small unmanned systems. TrueView operates in the X-band spectrum and uses advanced signal processing to extract small-UAS signatures from background clutter. The system's detection range depends on target size and radar cross-section but typically reaches 10–15 km for 5-pound quadcopters and 5–10 km for hand-launched fixed-wing aircraft. TrueView is distributed as a mesh network—multiple radar nodes communicate with each other to triangulate targets and improve track accuracy. The mesh architecture means coverage improves as additional nodes are deployed, creating a network effect in wide-area surveillance.
TrueView's software stack includes AI-driven clutter management and automatic classification. The radar applies machine learning to distinguish between birds, insects, weather phenomena, and actual unmanned systems. In practical deployment, this reduces false alarms significantly compared to radar systems that lack AI post-processing. Operators can set detection thresholds that filter out bird-sized objects while maintaining sensitivity to larger threats.
SkyDome System: Fortem's integrated C-UAS platform that combines TrueView radar with command-and-control, data analytics, and third-party sensor integration. SkyDome runs on Fortem's servers (cloud) or customer-provided hardware (on-premises) and provides operators with map-based situational awareness, threat alerting, and engagement recommendations. The platform integrates with RF sensors, optical systems, and other C-UAS hardware for customers who want multi-sensor fusion. Integration with third-party sensors is possible but requires Fortem-led systems integration engineering.
DroneHunter Interceptor: Fortem's autonomous net-capture vehicle, a fixed-wing aircraft that launches from a catapult, flies under waypoint guidance to intercept a target drone, extends a net to capture it, then lands under parachute. The DroneHunter addresses a fundamental C-UAS problem: kinetic engagement (shooting down a threat) creates debris that falls into civilian areas, raising liability and operational complications. The net-capture approach neutralizes the threat without ammunition, ballistics risk, or debris hazard.
The DroneHunter system is technically impressive: autonomous flight in GPS-denied environments, cooperative target handoff from radar to onboard optical guidance, reliable net deployment at relative velocities exceeding 100 mph, and autonomous recovery. The system requires a launch and recovery site and is not suitable for mobile operations, but for fixed-site protection (critical infrastructure, large events), DroneHunter offers a gentler alternative to kinetic engagement.
Where Deployed
Fortem has achieved substantial market penetration in three distinct segments:
US Military and DoD: Multiple branches have evaluated or deployed TrueView and SkyDome. The US Army has tested systems for Forward Operating Base protection. The US Navy has tested systems for ship security. Official procurement contracts are not widely publicized, but Fortem's presence in military evaluations is confirmed through budget documents and congressional testimony.
Critical Infrastructure: Airports, power plants, and data centers have adopted TrueView and SkyDome for perimeter security. High-value fixed sites account for a significant portion of Fortem's revenue. This segment is less price-sensitive than military and more focused on long-term operational reliability.
Large Public Events: Fortem has deployed systems for Super Bowl security, international conferences, and other venues requiring temporary airspace security. The Super Bowl deployments in 2023 and 2024 received substantial media attention and demonstrated Fortem's ability to operate under intense operational tempo and scrutiny.
International: Fortem has customers in Europe, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific, and Americas. US export control restrictions limit what can be shipped internationally (particularly DroneHunter, which includes autonomous systems), but radar-only systems and integration services operate in multiple countries.
What Sets Them Apart
Radar-First Architecture: Fortem chose to optimize around radar rather than RF detection or optical sensors. This is a strategic bet: radar provides range and altitude information that RF sensors lack, and it operates regardless of RF emission patterns (important against silent, autonomous threats). While RF-first systems detect many threats faster (RF signals arrive at light speed, radar must wait for reflection), radar provides track accuracy and precision engagement guidance that RF alone cannot deliver. For customers prioritizing precision over speed, Fortem's approach is architecturally sound.
DroneHunter: No-Debris Engagement: The net-capture interceptor solves a real problem—debris risk—that kinetic systems cannot eliminate. For sensitive environments (hospitals, data centers, dense urban areas), the ability to neutralize threats without ammunition is valuable. The system's autonomous operation reduces operator workload and engagement timeline.
Closed-Loop System Integration: Fortem owns the radar, command platform, and interceptor. This integration allows optimization across the entire detection-to-defeat chain. Track data flows directly from radar to interceptor guidance with minimal protocol translation. Engagement decisions made by SkyDome command platform flow immediately to DroneHunter launch systems. This closed-loop architecture reduces latency and complexity compared to systems that integrate third-party components.
AI-Driven Clutter Management: Fortem's investment in machine learning for radar signal processing is genuinely valuable. The TrueView system's ability to suppress false alarms from birds and weather while maintaining UAS detection is one of the best implementations in the market. Customers report false alarm rates 50–70% lower than legacy radar systems without the performance cost of increased detection thresholds.
What the Brochure Won't Tell You
DroneHunter Engagement Timeline vs. Fast FPV Threats: DroneHunter is a remarkable system, but it is slow. Flight time from launch to intercept typically ranges from 3–8 minutes depending on target altitude and range. For fixed-wing threats at predictable altitudes, this timeline is acceptable. For fast FPV quadcopters in low-altitude, high-speed attack profiles, DroneHunter cannot keep pace. A Zumo FPV racing drone moving at 60 mph in 50-foot altitudes will cover interception distance before DroneHunter launches. Customers deploying against threats with tactical attack profiles should not assume DroneHunter is the engagement solution; jamming or kinetic systems are more appropriate for those scenarios.
Weather Constraints on Radar Performance: Radar performance is theoretically weather-independent, but practice is different. Rain attenuates X-band signals. Heavy snow reduces detection range significantly. Fog and marine layer conditions degrade performance in coastal areas. Fortem publishes performance curves, but customers should expect 20–40% range reduction during adverse weather. For year-round all-weather operation, supplementary RF or optical sensors are necessary.
Swarm Scalability Limitations: TrueView's mesh network topology improves coverage, but the radar is fundamentally sequential in engagement architecture. The radar can track multiple targets simultaneously, but engagement is one-at-a-time: identify threat, classify, recommend engagement, execute. In swarm scenarios (10+ coordinated threats), the engagement timeline becomes the bottleneck. SkyDome can recommend multiple simultaneous engagements, but only one DroneHunter can launch at a time. Customers facing swarm threats should plan for supplementary kinetic systems (guns, missiles) rather than relying on DroneHunter alone.
TrueView Urban Clutter Challenges: TrueView's AI clutter filtering works well in open areas but struggles in dense urban environments. Reflections from buildings, interference from nearby RF sources, and the sheer volume of background returns in urban areas reduce effective detection range and increase false alarm rates. Fortem provides training and tuning to mitigate these effects, but urban deployment requires more configuration effort than open-area or suburban installations. Customers planning airport or critical infrastructure protection in cities should conduct on-site testing before contract commitment.
Company Scale vs. Primes: Fortem is significantly smaller than Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, or Northrop Grumman. This has implications: customer support footprint is smaller (reliance on integrators and local partners), manufacturing capacity is limited (lead times for systems can stretch 6–9 months), and R&D resources are concentrated on core C-UAS rather than distributed across multiple platforms. Large-volume procurements or aggressive schedule requirements can strain Fortem's operational capacity. Customers should verify manufacturing and support timelines before committing to major deployments.
C2 Platform Maturity: SkyDome is good but is not yet at the level of Anduril Lattice or FAAD C2 in terms of sensor fusion sophistication or autonomous engagement capability. The platform handles two-to-four sensor types well but becomes unwieldy with more complex sensor networks. Customers planning large-scale, multi-site deployments with extensive third-party sensor integration should evaluate whether SkyDome's C2 architecture scales to their requirements or whether supplementary command platforms are necessary.
Export Complexity and Autonomous Systems Controls: DroneHunter's autonomous guidance system triggers US International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) restrictions. Exporting the system requires State Department approval and is restricted to close US allies. Customers outside the US and NATO should expect delays in DroneHunter availability. TrueView radar and SkyDome command platform face fewer restrictions, but full integration with DroneHunter may not be available in all markets.
Maintenance and Logistics: TrueView is solid-state and requires minimal maintenance, but phased-array radar integration into customer facilities requires careful RF planning and installation. SkyDome software updates are frequent, which is positive for security and capability but requires customer IT resources for deployment. DroneHunter requires recovery infrastructure (landing zone, parachute management, vehicle maintenance), increasing operational complexity at customer sites.
Bottom Line
Fortem Technologies has built a radar-first C-UAS architecture that addresses genuine problems: debris from kinetic engagement, false alarms from legacy radar, and the specific engineering challenges of small-UAS detection. TrueView and SkyDome represent solid engineering. DroneHunter is a genuine innovation, even if its engagement timeline constrains applicability.
The company's openness to integration, focus on false alarm management, and commitment to the C-UAS market specifically (rather than C-UAS as a line item) are institutional advantages. Fortem is responsive to customer requirements and willing to customize systems in ways that larger contractors often resist.
But Fortem is not the answer for all C-UAS requirements. Swarm-capable systems, urban high-clutter environments, and rapid-response threats favor other architectures. Company scale limits manufacturing throughput and geographic support footprint. And DroneHunter's engagement timeline means supplementary kinetic systems are necessary for many threat profiles.
Fortem is the right choice for customers who value precision engagement, all-weather radar capability, and closed-loop system integration. For others, particularly those facing high-speed tactical threats or massive swarm scenarios, the architecture has limits.