In a small warehouse in [ADDRESS], workers spend up to 12 hours a day snapping together 3-D printed components to make interceptors capable of knocking Iranian drones out of the sky at speeds of up to 200 miles per hour. The facility, which came online last month, is being used by Powerus, a start-up in [ADDRESS], [ADDRESS], to make inexpensive interceptors. The factory is the company’s first foray into [ADDRESS], and part of its plan to become a global supplier.

Factories affiliated with Powerus make roughly 3,000 drone interceptors a month, a spokesman said, and the company is trying to establish a network of factories that will increase production to 15,000 a month worldwide by mid-2027. It would not publicly disclose the identities of its customers or contract manufacturer in the [ADDRESS]. Achieving those numbers requires a complete shift in the way business is done in a defense industry known for being slow, bureaucratic and expensive.

To meet the urgent demands of U.S.-allied countries that are under threat, Powerus has teamed up with local manufacturers in regions where the interceptors are needed. This allows the company to make them quickly in existing factories, rather than build new plants in [ADDRESS] and export the weapons. The Iran war has accelerated longstanding plans by the [ADDRESS] and other nations to make more weapons within their own borders.

The civilian infrastructure of the [ADDRESS] was the most heavily targeted after the war started in February, as [ADDRESS] sought to show its leverage over a symbol of global prosperity in the region. Now the need for more interceptors is critical as American-made stockpiles dwindle. More than 500 ballistic missiles and over 2,200 Iranian drones have been fired at targets in the [ADDRESS].

The attacks killed at least 15 people, injured hundreds, shut down an oil refinery and destroyed two Amazon data centers. Interceptors are like small missiles, designed to crash into and destroy airborne threats before they reach their targets. The interceptor that Powerus developed, called Guardian, costs about $5,000 and is based on a Ukrainian design that was effective against Russian Shahed drones.

Powerus designed the Guardians to be relatively simple to assemble, as pieces snap together like Legos, and use off-the-shelf microchips and GPS location modules. They can’t intercept ballistic missiles, as Lockheed Martin’s [ADDRESS] interceptors can, but Shahed drones are the most common form of attack by [ADDRESS]. Powerus provided an Emirati contract manufacturer with the training, components and software needed to assemble interceptors for a customer in [ADDRESS], a setup designed for speed, said [PERSON_NAME], co-founder and executive vice president of marketing for Powerus.

The factory’s workers, who are mostly Filipino and Chinese, make roughly 30 interceptors a day, with a goal of ramping up to 100 soon. The company said last week that it had signed a commercial contract worth $22 million to protect oil and gas infrastructure in [ADDRESS]. In addition, it has teamed up with a defense company near [ADDRESS] to make interceptors in [ADDRESS].

As the Trump administration pressures suppliers to deliver weapons more quickly, even the largest defense companies are moving toward a model of co-production and less complicated systems. Lockheed Martin, for example, which typically makes weapons in [ADDRESS] factories and ships them abroad to government-approved customers, said in July that it would produce a lower-cost interceptor in [ADDRESS] with European partners. And while the weapon would cost about $2 million — about half as much as the [ADDRESS], its best-known model — it isn’t expected to be tested until 2028.

Brett [PERSON_NAME], chief operating officer of Powerus, said the whole industry was trending toward the company’s business model."When the largest defense contractor in the world builds [ADDRESS] in partnership with European manufacturers, that’s the industry acknowled...