The US' New Anti-Drone Turret Looks a Lot Like Ukraine’s

Meet the Bullfrog, very similar to Ukraine's Sky Sentinel

Allen Control Systems

When I first wrote about Ukraine’s Sky Sentinel, I was blown away by their ability to not only train a narrow AI to shoot Shaheds on its own, but do it in a small form factor, crowdfund it, and surround Kyiv with ten of the buggers.

Clearly, they were on to something, and I would chalk this up to a private defense firm copying a good idea to resell to maritime SOF. Granted, it is not a 1 for 1 design copy, but the spirit of the Sky Sentinel now exists in a new American platform.

There is one big fundamental difference: Sky Sentinel was designed to be a static emplacement, and Bullfrog is meant to move with the SOF.

More on the differences here in a bit… I’ll do a side-by-side comparison below.

But first, let’s look at Bullfrog, the not-so-subtle clone of Ukraine’s Sky Sentinel AI turret.

Allen Control Systems, working through integrator ManTech and now under a contract with US Special Operations Command, has pitched a modular, AI-powered gun turret that turns ordinary machine guns into nearly plug-and-play counter-UAV systems.

Allen claims to be able to operate at roughly ten dollars per intercepted drone. That’s a pretty shocking claim, if true.

What Bullfrog Actually Is, and Why It Looks Familiar

Bullfrog is less a single gadget and more a modular ecosystem, engineered so components can be swapped based on mission and budget.

The physical heart of the system is a stabilized mount, a pair of precision servomotors, and shock-absorbing bearings that let the payload point accurately while the vehicle or boat is bouncing over terrain or waves.

That matters because a sloppy aim will waste ammo and miss fast, small targets. The stabilization package is engineered to MIL-STD vibration and shock tolerances so it can live on anything from a patrol boat to a tactical truck and be expected to survive a pothole or a heavy landing.

Sensors are where the turret stops being “just a gun” and starts being an automated shooter.

Modern kits layer passive electro-optical cameras with thermal imagers, and depending on the configuration, short-range pulse radar or acoustic arrays. The point of that stack is redundancy. If a battlefield jammer blots out active radar, a thermal sensor can still spot the heat signatures of motors and exhaust.

If dust or smoke hides a target optically, an acoustic signature or a passive RF detection system can cue the turret. The software fuses those feeds into a single track file, which is then fed into the ballistics engine.

That ballistics engine is pure math, and good math matters. It computes range, bearing, target velocity, and compensates for muzzle velocity decay, crosswind, Coriolis effect if you feel fancy, and movement of the firing platform.

The result is real-time lead calculation delivered to the gunner interface in fractions of a second. You will see terms like “automatic lead computation” and “single-shot probability of kill,” and those are the difference between spraying and scoring.

Software is another module entirely.

Allen’s bundle uses machine learning models trained on thousands of flight profiles to distinguish friend from foe, to prioritize targets in a crowded sky, and to filter out benign birds or weather balloons.

Those models run on edge compute hardware built to survive battlefield heat and dust, with encrypted mission data links so a remote controller can work the turret from miles away. The architecture is intended to be upgradable, so new detection algorithms or counter-spoofing routines can be pushed as threats evolve.

Integration matters. Bullfrog is built to be part of a local air defense mesh, not an island. It accepts common command and control inputs and can be slaved to external radars, counter-UAS sensors, or an overhead drone acting as a spotter.

That means a single forward radar can cue a dozen turrets, concentrating fire where it is needed and avoiding redundant engagement of the same target. It also lets commanders manage rules of engagement centrally, which is useful if you want to avoid international incidents.

Maintainability is practical, not glamorous. The turret uses quick-change barrels and modular gearboxes, so even a Marine infantryman can swap a worn component in the field with basic tools (ZING!).

Cooling, power draws, and thermal management are engineered so the unit can sustain multiple short engagements without catastrophic failure, but like any motorized weapon, heat and barrel wear impose operational limits.

The logistics tail is real: spare barrels, belts of iron, and motor controllers must be available for the turret to remain a reliable defender.

Finally, tactical utility is all about placement and doctrine.

Bullfrog is effective when used as a distributed, short-range layer that accepts low-fidelity targets and buys higher value interceptors for far threats.

Deployed in numbers around critical nodes (just like Sky Sentinel), it can force an attacker to either expend heavier munitions or accept higher risk. It is a practical, pragmatic answer to a swarm problem, not a silver bullet.

That makes it familiar in form, but modern in function, because it stitches together stabilization, sensor fusion, ballistic computation, and edge AI into a single package you can bolt to a roof and trust to hold the line.

Why the $10 Claim Has Legs, But Needs Context

Allen’s cost claim is intentionally intoxicating. How can a counter-UAV shot be cheaper than a Starbucks Dragon Fruit Refresher on a hot summer day? Simple, they are counting the marginal cost per kill, not the price of the turret, integration, training, or sustainment.

Let’s check their math.