Allen Control Systems raises $30M Series A to build AI-powered autonomous gun turrets for counter-drone defense

Summary

Allen Control Systems, a two-and-a-half-year-old defense robotics startup, has closed a $30 million Series A led by Craft Ventures — the same firm that backed its seed round. The company builds AI-powered autonomous gun turrets designed to detect and shoot down drones with precision rather than suppressive fire.

Founding and product

CEO Steve Simone and CTO Luke Allen — the company's namesake — met as nuclear engineers in the US Navy roughly 16 years ago. They previously co-founded a startup that sold to DoorDash, and launched Allen Control Systems the same week Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, after observing Ukrainian soldiers firing small arms at drones and seeing a gap in precision kinetic counter-drone solutions. Most existing counter-drone technology focuses on interceptors, electronic warfare, lasers, and microwaves; Allen Control Systems is betting that autonomous guns using widely available ammunition can put downward cost pressure on all of those alternatives.

The product has three core engineering layers: a vision system to detect small drones against cluttered backgrounds, a fire control system to track and shoot, and the underlying hardware and mechanical platform. Simone says the computer vision problem — identifying a fast-moving DJI Mavic-class drone against a busy background precisely enough to put a bullet through it — is harder than most commercial or self-driving applications, and the company is doing original research rather than riding off-the-shelf models.

Market position

The remote weapon station market, which is what these turrets are classified as, is dominated by non-US suppliers. Simone argues Allen Control Systems is well-positioned politically as a domestic American manufacturer in a category where Congress has been surprised to learn the incumbents are foreign companies.

The company's go-to-market strategy centers on partnerships rather than direct platform sales. Autonomous boats, unmanned surface vehicles, and autonomous ground vehicles all need autonomous payloads, and Allen Control Systems is positioning its turret as the weapon system that bundles with those platforms — working alongside companies like Sarcos and others in the unmanned vehicle ecosystem.

Budget environment

On the DOGE-driven DOD budget uncertainty, Simone says counter-small-drone technology sits on Secretary Hegseth's protected list of 14 priority technology fields, insulating the company from cuts. The lack of a passed FY2025 budget created some pressure, but Simone says Allen Control Systems' primary revenue pipeline is in FY2026 and beyond, so the continuing resolution had limited near-term impact.

The company is at 34 people and actively hiring, with computer vision engineers cited as the most critical and competitive role.