A startup providing a missile-intercepting drone service has just been launched.. Impact Drones, backed by VC firm Y Combinator, aims to build autonomous interceptor drones to protect key civilian infrastructure such as data centers, airports, and power grids.. Its autonomous interceptor drones are containerized in a sealed box that can be placed at sites requiring protection..
Impact says that, when sensors detect a hostile drone, the interceptor launches into the target guided by onboard visual navigation (which the startup says works even if there are issues with GPS).. Co-founded by Jasper Lortije and Alessandro Fiume, Impact Drones is based in San Francisco, California, and consists of just the two founding members..
Lortije comes from an aerospace engineering background, building GNSS-denied navigation systems that allow navigation for vehicles and drones when satellite signals such as GPS are blocked. Fiume previously worked in sales for Bloomberg.. Impact Drones’ target for a pilot deployment of its interceptors is Q3 2026.
The startup has two interceptor models: the Hunter, a close-range interceptor, and the Sable, a pursuit interceptor for long-range threats. Both interceptors are expected to be able to launch from shippable containers, piercing the lid when sensors detect hostile drones.. – Impact Drones.
The startup’s launch follows several strikes on data centers in the wake of the US-Israeli conflict with Iran and its regional allies.. Several Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centers were hit by Iran in the last year. In early March, it was confirmed that two AWS data centers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had been struck, with a further facility in Bahrain damaged due to a nearby Iranian drone strike..
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) then claimed to have hit an AWS data center in Bahrain again, with state-affiliated media reporting the cruise missile attack in late July.. AWS has not updated the status of its Bahrain data centers since stating disruption as a result of the original incident on April 30..
Iran said the attack was a retaliation for US strikes on Darkhovin, which it reported were targeting a nuclear power plant that is under construction in the city. The US Central Command (CentCom) did not mention the power plant as a target of the attack.. The IRGC also reportedly damaged an Oracle data center in Dubai in early April, as well as threatening an attack on an OpenAI data center in the UAE..
This followed the IRGC’s threat to target a named list of 18 US technology companies with locations in the Middle East, released on April 1, in response to US attempts to kill the Iranian leadership.. Iranian data centers have also been attacked in the conflict. On April 6, a High-Performance Computing (HPC) data center located on Iran’s Sharif University of Technology site in Tehran was hit by US-Israeli strikes..
In addition to the data center, other important educational facilities and labs were damaged on the campus of Iran’s premier engineering university, known for computer science and AI. As a result, the university’s website had to be taken down.. At least two further data centers in Tehran alone have been hit by US-Israeli strikes, as reported by non-profit organization Holistic Resilience, which maps airstrikes on Iran.
Additional details about the facilities and damage caused have not been shared.. Related infrastructure has also been targeted in this conflict, such as an SES satellite teleport in Israel, which was struck by a Hezbollah missile on March 9.. More in Security & Risk.
25 Mar 2026. More in North America. 02 Jul 2026.
22 Jul 2026
