Kaizen Awarded Department of War Contract to Build Counter-Drone Marketplace

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Aug 04, 2026, 09:00 ET

Kaizen rapidly deployed new JIATF-401 platform on an accelerated timeline to help military, law enforcement, and allies and partners identify and evaluate counter-UAS technologies

NEW YORK, Aug. 4, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Kaizen, an AI-native software company rebuilding government's digital application layer, today announced a $15 million contract with the U.S. Department of War (DoW) to power, build, and operate a unified, two-way Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems (C-UAS) Marketplace.

Under a prototype Other Transaction Agreement (OTA) with Joint Interagency Task Force 401 (JIATF-401) awarded on May 8, 2026, Kaizen engineered, accredited, and shipped the secure platform on an accelerated timeline compared with legacy software acquisitions.

The C-UAS Marketplace, built by Kaizen, acts as an online catalog where military buyers, domestic law enforcement agencies, and allies and partners can discover and evaluate validated counter-drone technologies.

Coming Soon to the C-UAS Marketplace - The Capability Planner in action: A buyer protecting a packed stadium during a multi-day sporting event describes the threat in plain English, noting that dense crowds nearby make non-kinetic defeat essential. The platform’s AI interprets the description and turns it into a structured threat assessment the buyer can review and adjust. The Capability Planner’s intelligent matching engine then assembles a layered defense package spanning the full counter-UAS kill chain: detecting the drone, tracking its movement, identifying the threat, and defeating it. Because crowds are close by, and the venue is not a national symbol or critical infrastructure, it selects electronic-warfare systems and low-collateral kinetic defeat options. Every AI-generated recommendation comes from a validated marketplace listing, and the buyer can submit the complete package as an acquisition request in one click. (Demonstration environment with representative product data.)

On the modern battlefield, low-cost, commercially available drones have fundamentally reshaped combat economics, creating a dangerous capability asymmetry. Because tactical threats evolve in hours, there was a need to ensure that the DoW's C-UAS procurement could adapt just as quickly to the threats. The newly deployed C-UAS Marketplace is intended to solve any existing structural delays at the highest possible design and usability standards.

The platform acts as an online catalog where military buyers, domestic law enforcement agencies, and allies and partners can discover and evaluate validated counter-drone technologies. The centralized mechanism reduces risk, accelerates fielding timelines, and ensures taxpayer resources are applied to proven solutions.

Kaizen's deployment team leveraged its proprietary build environment, Blacksmith, and its library of pre-built constituent service modules, Taproot, to compress development timelines and rapidly deliver the marketplace platform. Kaizen's AI-ready software will serve as the operational backbone for the secure interface, increasing efficiency for marketplace buyers and vendors, and giving decision makers the data they need to move quickly.

The marketplace's flagship AI capability, the Capability Planner, is designed to enable operators and buyers to describe a threat in plain language and receive an AI-assembled recommendation for a layered C-UAS defense package built from validated listings, ready to submit as an acquisition request. The Capability Planner is expected to be fully operational on the live Marketplace in the coming days.

"Government systems designed for a paper-based era should not slow down critical missions. For C-UAS, the Department of War needs first-class digital tools that move with the threat environment, not behind it," said Nikhil Reddy, Co-founder and CEO of Kaizen. "We built an ambitious, transactional infrastructure designed to onboard vendors seamlessly and deliver a product discovery and validation experience that rivals any flagship consumer e-commerce platform. The marketplace is a win for the entire defense ecosystem."

The Kaizen-built platform is an intuitive, high-performance portal that enables defense buyers to browse, filter, and search by specific tactical mission needs, evaluate validated system performance data, and instantly submit acquisition requests. The platform's architecture is designed to support the DoW's foreign military sales (FMS) Fast Lane initiative, seamlessly integrating with existing processes to rapidly generate requirements and compress standard FMS timelines. Vendors are able to publish C-UAS products with specifications, identifications, and lead times, and attest to compliance requirements, which are then independently validated by JIATF-401 to ensure every listing meets a common standard.

"The marketplace is a critical step forward in our whole-of-government approach to countering the threat of unmanned systems," said Brig. Gen. Matt Ross, director of JIATF-401. "This platform is not only revolutionizing the entire procurement process, but also empowering users with the information and tools needed to safeguard our service members and citizens, while providing timely, cost-effective solutions to our warfighters."

Kaizen's platform serves as a highly configurable, modern application layer that sits directly on top of existing systems of record, avoiding the risk and cost of a total overhaul. This "build once, deploy anywhere" architecture ensures the same technical foundation powering civilian platforms can be rapidly accredited and deployed to protect national security.

The DoW award marks Kaizen's continued expansion into federal service following partnerships with three different cabinet-level agencies in the first half of 2026 alone. Kaizen is meeting increased demand for AI-native software platforms that can help the government deliver remarkable technology outcomes for constituents, administrators, and service members alike.

Read more about Kaizen's role in building and operating the C-UAS Marketplace on War.gov.

About Kaizen

Kaizen builds AI-native software for the government's critical application layer. The company partners with local, state, and federal agencies to replace outdated public service technology with software that is faster to launch, easier to use, and built for any constituent who needs to use a government technology platform to facilitate a critical workflow. Kaizen is based in New York and backed by Accel, Andreessen Horowitz, Carpenter Capital, NEA, and Seven Seven Six.

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SOURCE Kaizen