Product profile
Bumblebee
Bumblebee is Perennial Autonomy small quadcopter platform for defense and counter-drone operations. It is used as part of the company AI-enabled unmanned-s...
Facts
- Company
- Perennial Autonomy
- Product type
- autonomous_drone
- Status
- active
- Primary capability
- defense
About Bumblebee
Bumblebee is a compact quadcopter developed for short-range intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. The aircraft carries day or thermal sensing equipment and can be deployed by small units for local observation, route assessment and target detection. Its portable form supports repeated launch from dispersed field positions.
Perennial Autonomy integrates Bumblebee with its wider software and unmanned-system portfolio, which includes strike and counter-UAS aircraft. Operators use the platform for battlefield sensing and situational awareness before assigning other assets to an identified target. Bumblebee is marketed as an attritable defence system produced for operational military use.
Market context
https://www.afcea.org/signal-media/defense-operations/initial-counter-drone-technologies-look-good, Small-unit and base-defense counter-UAS evaluators, complete_public_profile, JIATF-401 Fort Bragg V1/V2 prototype testing, Prototype assessment, https://www.afcea.org/signal-media/defense-operations/initial-counter-drone-technologies-look-good
Summary
Type: Orchard robot
Core: Crop scouting
Function: Monitoring
Audience: Farmers
Specifications
- autonomy_feature
- AI-based automated target recognition for terminal lock-on in V2
- battery_endurance_min
- About 20-25 minutes depending on velocity
- payload_sensors
- Updated camera system with improved gimbal rotation and three cameras on V2 prototypes
- system_type
- Quad-rotor hard-kill counter-drone capability
- tested_range_m
- 900 m
- version_status
- Version 2 prototypes entered JIATF-401 operational assessment at Fort Bragg in April 2026
Operations
- Environment
- aerial, field_training_range, small_unit_defense
- Primary user
- defence_operator
- Role
- counter_uas, short_range_intercept, small_unit_defense
- Interaction model
- human_supervised, manual_flight, ai_assisted_terminal_lock
- Mobility class
- aerial_multirotor, portable
- Product detail
- https://www.afcea.org/signal-media/defense-operations/initial-counter-drone-technologies-look-good, Small-unit and base-defense counter-UAS evaluators, complete_public_profile, JIATF-401 Fort Bragg V1/V2 prototype testing, Prototype assessment, https://www.afcea.org/signal-media/defense-operations/initial-counter-drone-technologies-look-good
Research, Articles and recent verified events
- Perennial conducts first direct U.S. Marine Corps unit training — 2026-08-03
- Perennial Autonomy wins $500M JIATF-401 counter-UAS procurement contract — 2026-05-19
- Lithuania buys 48 Merops interceptors as NATO evaluates low-cost counter-UAS systems — 2026-05-05
- JIATF-401 tests Bumblebee V2 counter-drone prototypes at Fort Bragg — 2026-04-24