About Forerunner

We build autonomous
airspace defense systems

Forerunner develops ground-based sensor systems that detect and track small drones autonomously using trained neural networks. No operator, no infrastructure, no cloud dependency.

Our first product, Trophy, is a soldier's K9 for airspace — a compact ground unit that a single person can carry, set on the ground, and leave running. It watches the sky in any weather, day or night, and alerts you the moment something enters your airspace.

Founded

2026 — San Diego, CA

Background

Software engineering, edge AI, embedded systems

Focus

Counter-UAS, autonomous airspace defense

Trophy

Ground sentry.
Eyes on the sky.

Trophy is a portable ground unit — not a drone. Set it down, walk away, and it watches your perimeter with trained neural networks and multi-sensor fusion. All-weather, day and night, no operator needed.

Zero RF Emissions

No wireless communication. Wired connection only. No RF to detect, jam, or exploit. No wireless attack surface for enemy EW systems.

All-Weather, Day & Night

Operates in total darkness, fog, rain, snow, dust, and direct sun. Sealed housing rated for battlefield conditions.

Fully Modular

5 hot-swap sensor bays. Pull one, push another. If a sensor fails, Trophy reports reduced capability and keeps running on the rest.

Autonomous

No operator needed. On-device neural networks handle detection, tracking, and alerting. Deploy it on the ground and walk away.

Modular Countermeasures

Alert-only, RF jamming, GPS spoofing, or mount any weapon to the gimbal. Use what the mission requires — nothing more.

Defeats RF-Silent Drones

Fiber-optic drones, autonomous AI-guided drones, GPS-denied navigation — if it doesn't transmit, RF systems are blind. Trophy's acoustic, thermal, and visual sensors detect them anyway.

Zero Thermal Signature

Passive sensors, no active emissions, minimal heat output. Designed to minimize thermal, RF, and visual signatures.

Backpack Portable

Under 5kg. One soldier carries it, sets it on the ground, and it's operational. No tools, no assembly, no infrastructure.

Wired Comms

Hardline cable to operator. Zero wireless signature. No network, no interception, no jamming possible.

The Threat RF-Based Systems Miss

Autonomous drones don't need GPS or radio links to find you.

The next generation of strike drones navigate on edge AI — visual odometry, inertial navigation, onboard target recognition. No RF command link. No GPS signal. No frequency to scan for. Detection systems that rely on RF intercept or GPS spoofing will never see them coming. Trophy detects what matters: the physical drone itself — its acoustic signature, its thermal profile, its shape against the sky.

Inside Trophy

Every part is modular

Every component is field-replaceable without tools. Sensors, battery, and countermeasure modules slide in and out. If something fails, replace it on the spot and keep running.

01

Sensor Bays

Visual, IR, acoustic, radar, RF. Each slides out independently. No tools needed.

02

Battery Pack

Hot-swap without powering down. 72h active, 7 days standby. Solar-extendable.

03

Compute Core

Runs the full detection pipeline on-device. All processing stays local — nothing leaves the unit.

04

Gimbal Mount

Attach countermeasure modules. RF jammer, GPS spoofer, or weapon mount — swap based on mission.

Detection Pipeline

How Trophy thinks

Five stages, every frame, entirely on-device. No cloud, no latency, no single point of failure.

01

Capture

Multi-sensor input — visual, IR, acoustic, radar, RF.

02

Detect

YOLO neural network inference on every frame.

03

Track

ByteTrack multi-object tracking + Kalman prediction.

04

Fuse

Cross-reference detections across sensor modalities. Reduce false positives.

05

Act

Gimbal tracks target. Alert sent to operator. Countermeasure engaged if armed.

01 — Capture

Multi-sensor input

Visual, IR, acoustic, radar, RF

02 — Detect

YOLO neural network

Real-time inference on every frame

03 — Track

ByteTrack + Kalman filter

Multi-object tracking with prediction

04 — Fuse

Multi-modal sensor fusion

Cross-reference detections, reduce false positives

05 — Act

Gimbal lock-on + alert

Track target, alert operator, engage countermeasure

Time to Action

Sub-200ms reaction time

Target: from the moment a drone enters the detection envelope to gimbal lock-on. The same reaction-time class as military weapons systems, in a portable form factor.

<200ms end-to-end

Sensor capture ~10ms Global shutter, 100+ fps

Detection 5–15ms Custom INT8 model on dedicated NPU

Tracking <2ms ByteTrack multi-object + Kalman prediction

Fusion <3ms Cross-modal correlation, optimised for Trophy's sensor set

Command output <1ms Direct hardware bus, no OS scheduling overhead

Gimbal slew 50–150ms Brushless direct-drive, no gears — 180° in under 100ms

For comparison

CIWS Phalanx

100–200ms

Most counter-drone

1–5 seconds

Trophy

<200ms

Specifications

Under the hood

Production target specifications — active development. See our proof of concept for what's running today.

5 Modular Sensor Bays

Visual Global shutter daylight camera — wide-angle, high frame rate, 500m detection range

Infrared Near-infrared sensor — full darkness operation with active IR illumination when needed

Acoustic Microphone array — propeller signature detection, direction of arrival, works against RF-silent drones

Radar Micro-Doppler radar — detects rotor blades through foliage and weather

RF Radio frequency scanner — drone control link and video downlink detection

Detection & Intelligence

Detection Custom-trained neural network for drone detection and classification — multi-modal sensor fusion, real-time on-device inference

Tracking Multi-object tracking with Kalman prediction — simultaneous targets

Range Target: 500m detection radius — bearing, distance, and classification per target

Degradation Sensor failure auto-detected — reports reduced capability, keeps running on remaining sensors

Countermeasures

Default Alert-only mode — detection and tracking with zero emissions

Electronic Optional RF jamming + GPS spoofing module — defeats wireless-controlled drones

Kinetic Gimbal weapon mount — standard rifle or shotgun, cable-triggered from operator position

Physical

Weight Target: under 5 kg — single soldier carry, fits in a rucksack

Deployment Set it on the ground, power on, operational. No tools, no assembly, no setup

Power Target: 72h active / 7 days smart standby — hot-swap battery, solar-extendable

Comms Wired only — hardline cable to operator. Zero wireless signature, no wireless attack surface

Software

Stack Built in Rust — memory safe, real-time, zero runtime overhead

Compute Edge compute — all processing runs on the unit. No external dependency

Modularity Sensor bays field-replaceable in under 60 seconds — no tools, no downtime

Proof of Concept

This isn't a render. It's running.

Trophy is a working prototype today — real-time detection, dual cameras, autonomous gimbal tracking. The production specs above are the target. See what's proven right now.

Follow our progress →

Get In Touch

Interested in Trophy?

We work with defense units and procurement teams. If you need portable drone detection, let's talk.

hello@forerunner-systems.com

Trophy Autonomous Ground-Based Drone Detection

We build autonomousairspace defense systems

Ground sentry.Eyes on the sky.