The Army’s latest anti-drone tool fires missiles from a cargo container

The military’s latest attempt to create cheap and effective counter-drone weapons looks like a shipping container. And for the first time, it took out a mid-sized aerial drone with a Joint Air-to-Ground Missile.

The Army and weapons developer Lockheed Martin successfully took out the drone during recent testing at the Army’s Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona, the Army and Lockheed announced. They used Lockheed Martin’s GRIZZLY platform, a missile launcher based on the M229 launcher system that is heavily used by the U.S. military. However this one has a shipping container built around it.

On June 3, the Army said it tested the GRIZZLY vertical launcher with an AGM-179 JAGM, using a software to track and target a one-way attack test drone and shoot it down. Specifically, the GRIZZLY system shot down a Group 3-type drone; that is the military’s categorization for drones, largely based on size. Mid-sized drones, like Iran’s Shahed-136 and the American LUCAS derivative, fit into that category. Both of those drones have seen extensive use in the American and Israeli war with Iran.

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In practice, the Grizzly launcher is a small, easily moved defense tool that can help protect bases from low-cost drones. The system looks like a standard 10-foot-long shipping container, but in action the top of it pops open and several missiles can fire from it. According to developer Lockheed Martin, the system was developed in just six months and is meant to be cheap, using readily available commercial parts. A single GRIZZLY can be used for counter-drone purposes, although the developer noted that they could also be massed for greater intercept capabilities.

This test used the GRIZZLY system as well as radars and the Sanctum software that tracks drones in flight. Together they identified the drone and fired the missile from the container.

“This test demonstrates a rapid, low-cost and modular point-defense solution that can be deployed on land or maritime platforms within days,” Paul Lemmo, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin Sensors, Effectors and Mission Systems, said in a release from the company.. “The demonstrated kill chain can operate standalone or integrated with higher echelon command and control systems through the Sanctum mesh network, showing our commitment to meet our customers’ toughest missions.”

The drone shootdown also comes just weeks after successfully carrying out a pair of live-fire tests using AGM-114 Hellfire missiles.

The idea of using shipping containers for military purposes isn’t new. In June 2025, Ukraine launched Operation Spider’s Web, a massive drone attack deep inside Russian lines. The drones were carried in a series of wooden sheds shipped on the backs of trucks. Once in place they were remotely launched and damaged several Russian airfields, and took out multiple bombers. The attack showed how swarms of small drones, once in range, can surprise and deal serious damage to installations. During the war with Iran this year, similar first person view drones damaged an American base in Iraq.

The rise of drones in military tactics has led the Army to try several different methods to defend units and installations. So far the Army has rolled out several options: loitering munitions, specialized rifle and helicopter gun rounds that can shred enemy drone swarms, even several types of lasers and other directed-energy weapon systems.