It’s a matter of warfare math: Why use a multimillion dollar missile to intercept a drone that costs thousands of dollars?

And a Huntsville-born company answered that question with an affordable, mass-producible interceptor for the U.S. and its allies.

X-Bow Systems unveiled Buckler, a low-cost interceptor designed to defeat Group 3 drones at supersonic speeds. Group 3 includes medium-sized, tactical unmanned aircraft systems usually weighing between 56 and 1,320 pounds. They operate at speeds below 250 knots and at altitudes up to 18,000 feet

“You can’t win a war of attrition trading million-dollar interceptors against thousand-dollar threats,” said X-Bow founder and CEO Jason Hundley. “Buckler has flown, it comes in under $100,000, and we build its airframe and propulsion ourselves — the part of the industrial base that is so stressed by today’s munitions demands.”

Founded in Huntsville in 2016 and now based in Albuquerque, X-Bow (pronounced “crossbow”) builds the solid rocket motors that power America’s missiles, interceptors and Additive Manufacturing of Solid Propellant (AMSP) process and Rocket Factory in a Box, the manufacturing capacity to produce them at scale.

The flight-tested missile, priced under $100,000, is built on propulsion and an airframe that X-Bow produces in-house, at a fraction of the cost of today’s exquisite defenses.

“This is our answer to the call from the U.S. and its allies – affordable capability, at scale,” Hundley said.

Buckler’s advantage starts with propulsion. X-Bow designs and builds Buckler’s airframe and its own solid rocket and propellant – breaking the industrial-base bottleneck defense leaders cite as the top constraint on scaling interceptors. X-Bow also produces them through fixed and deployable manufacturing already delivering across multiple programs. The vertical integration lets X-Bow control cost, quality, and surge output on demand, according to a news release.

The interceptor recently completed a flight test demonstrating its propulsion and flight performance, supported by motor static-fire and igniter testing. X-Bow said that puts Buckler well beyond the concept stage, “arriving as forces across the Department of War and allied partners urgently seek affordable interceptors they can field in volume.”

X-Bow was unveiled Monday at the Farnborough International Airshow and will be on display Aug. 11-13 at the 2026 Space & Missile Defense Symposium in Huntsville.