U.S. keeps Ukraine’s VAMPIRE counter-drone fleet combat-ready

The U.S. Navy is moving to extend technical support for the VAMPIRE counter-drone system deployed with Ukrainian naval forces, according to a presolicitation notice published May 14 by the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division.

The contract modification targets Sierra Nevada Company for sole-source award, covering repairs, maintenance, sustainment materials, and specialist technical support for a system that has been operating in one of the world’s most demanding combat environments since its delivery to Ukraine.

The VAMPIRE system, which stands for Vehicle-Agnostic Modular Palletized ISR Rocket Equipment, was initially developed by L3Harris Technologies, the Melbourne, Florida-based defense electronics company that built and delivered the initial units to Ukrainian forces as part of a U.S. security assistance package announced in July 2022. The platform fires Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System rockets, laser-guided munitions originally developed for aircraft use that were adapted for ground-launch against drone targets, giving the system a proven kinetic intercept capability without requiring purpose-built military vehicles or extensive logistical infrastructure. Its vehicle-agnostic design allows it to mount on the bed of a commercial pickup truck, a deliberate capability choice that let Ukraine field the system quickly across a wide front without waiting for purpose-built platforms or putting personnel through lengthy training pipelines on complex Western hardware.

Sierra Nevada Company, known in the industry as SNC, is a privately held aerospace and defense contractor with operations centered in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and is perhaps best known for developing the Battery Revolving Adaptive Weapons Launcher, or BRAWLR, a modular weapons system designed to provide flexible, scalable firepower from a variety of ground and maritime platforms. Under the presolicitation notice, SNC would take on continuing sustainment responsibility for the VAMPIRE systems operating with the Ukraine Navy, providing engineers, maintenance technicians, field service representatives, and reach-back technical assistance for systems deployed in Eastern Europe under NATO coordination. Work will be performed both within the continental United States and in the field, meaning SNC personnel will operate in close proximity to a conflict zone that has not shown any sign of winding down.

The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, or NAWCAD, based at Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Maryland, serves as the Navy’s primary research, development, test, and evaluation organization for aircraft and airborne weapons systems, and its involvement in sustaining a ground-based counter-drone system operating with a foreign navy reflects the unusual acquisition pathways that the Ukraine security assistance effort has generated since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022. Routing equipment and support through whichever service and contracting office has the existing relationships and infrastructure to move fastest has become a defining feature of how the United States manages its Ukraine military assistance commitments, and this presolicitation is a characteristic example of that approach in action.

The Ukraine Navy’s operational requirement for VAMPIRE reflects a specific challenge that has grown more acute as the war has continued. Russian drone and missile strikes targeting Ukrainian port infrastructure, naval facilities, and coastal positions have forced Ukrainian naval forces to develop layered close-in air defense around assets that large fixed air defense systems cannot adequately protect. VAMPIRE’s mobility and relatively simple logistics make it a practical solution for defending the kind of dispersed, semi-fixed positions that Ukrainian naval forces have had to adopt to survive in a contested maritime environment where Russian long-range strike capabilities remain a persistent threat.

The sole-source justification the Navy has invoked cites SNC as the only responsible source capable of fulfilling the requirement within the critical fleet timeline, a determination that reflects both the company’s secure facility accesses and its institutional knowledge of the deployed system’s specific configuration. The presolicitation notice states explicitly that the action is published for information purposes only and does not invite competitive proposals, with questions about subcontracting opportunities directed to SNC’s contracting office in Colorado Springs, indicating the company has latitude to bring in specialized subcontractors for specific elements of the work while retaining overall responsibility for the sustainment effort.

The response date of May 29, 2026, with an inactive date of June 13, signals that the Navy intends to move quickly once the presolicitation period closes, consistent with the urgency language around the critical fleet timeline. That urgency is not bureaucratic phrasing. Systems operating in active combat environments degrade faster than peacetime maintenance schedules anticipate, spare parts consumption accelerates, and field repairs that would be routine in a garrison environment become complex logistics problems when the nearest depot is hundreds of kilometers from the front.

What this presolicitation confirms, beyond its administrative details, is that the United States remains committed to keeping systems it has delivered to Ukraine operational under combat conditions, and that commitment extends to putting American contractor personnel in the field to make it happen. The VAMPIRE systems operating with the Ukraine Navy today are not donated equipment left to Ukrainian forces to maintain as best they can. They are supported capabilities with American engineers and technicians behind them, sustained through a contracting chain that runs from Colorado Springs through Patuxent River to the front lines of a war that has already outlasted most early predictions about its duration and its demands on the weapons systems caught inside it.