Modern warfare is dominated by thousands of ultra-cheap, ultra-fast drones that fly robotic “suicide” missions to deliver explosives into enemy territory. Private companies have scrambled to develop technology to counter these unmanned aerial systems, but these solutions are often not adequate, leaving rifle-toting soldiers trying to hit these targets with their naked eyes.
ZeroMark wants to give those soldiers something better: a system that can be attached to nearly any infantry rifle in 30 seconds, and which greatly increases the shooter’s chances of shooting down those drones.
This product, which ZeroMark calls a “fire control system,” has two components: a small computer loaded with sensors, such as lidar and electro-optical, and a motorized buttstock. Joel Anderson, the startup’s CEO, said in a recent interview that the system makes shooting down a small drone at 200 yards as easy as hitting a 60-foot diameter circle — something that almost anyone can do.
The system is pretty precise: it uses machine vision to predict where the drone is going, and uses ballistic calculations to fine-tune the shots to some degree to ensure they hit their target.
,[The mechanized buttstock] doesn’t move the soldier’s arm, it creates a virtual pivot between the shoulder pad and the position of the arm that creates an angular change in the bore axis (ultimately the direction of the gun),” Anderson explained. “The control system for this is designed to compensate for all human factors (proprioception, noise, movement, torque, etc.) as well as the motion of the drone. So if you point in the general direction of the drone as you would around the drone, the system does the rest.”
Anderson, who had joined the US Navy right out of high school, eventually joined private industry and became MongoDB’s first CISO and CIO. He says that when he drove his Full Self-Driving-capable Tesla to a shooting range and realized there was no similar automation for target practice, he realized there was an opportunity to enhance the capabilities of a mounted soldier.
“It was crazy to me that I’ve never seen as much technology in a regular consumer car as I’ve seen in a Navy or Department of Defense car, especially for the military,” he said. “I realized this is a huge opportunity for technology for the military that can help give them an advantage that doesn’t exist right now.”
He built a prototype of the fire control system and showed it to Katherine Boyle and David Ulevitch, both partners at Andreessen Horowitz’s American Dynamism Fund. They wanted to see more, and in September 2022, Anderson formally took the leap and founded ZeroMark.
ZeroMark’s technology is a little scary; it sounds like “Iron Man,” but in the real world, there are real concerns about the system falling into the wrong hands. The startup is focused solely on combating offensive drones, but one could imagine this technology being adapted to hit any target — such as a person — with greater precision.
Anderson acknowledged that the idea of a “gun that never misses” is controversial, and the company backed away from selling to domestic police forces because, as he said, “I don’t think the world is ready for it, nor am I ready for that. I don’t want police to have AI weapons.” The company focused on drones, understanding the existing asymmetry in warfighting.
He said the company has developed robust licensing, remote activation and fleet management features to manage the use of the systems.
Some of the equipment is already in the field, much of it with private security companies that provide security for assets such as large boats. (Pirates have been known to use drones to intimidate crews and forcibly board ships.) The company is also in talks to export equipment to Ukraine and is in talks with the US Department of Defense; regarding these latter talks, Anderson said they are hoping to move forward with small-scale testing and evaluation as a stepping stone to a larger purchase.
The soldier-focused solution has caught the attention of major VCs who no longer shy away from defense tech startups. Earlier this week, ZeroMark announced it had completed a $7 million seed funding round led by US- and Israel-based Ground Up Ventures and a16z. The capital will be spent on growing the number of employees (there are currently seven on the team) and research and development.
New York City-based ZeroMark doesn’t want to stop at auto-aiming systems. As Anderson said, it doesn’t want to be the next gen defense prime, but rather “the prime that dominates soldier systems, anything related to force protection.” There are also many other platforms for which the same software can be used, such as camera systems that detect what a drone is doing, who owns it or whether it is carrying a payload.
In the longer term, we can envision integrating ZeroMark’s software into a head-up display or audible interface to provide soldiers with more information in real time.
“Big systems like aircraft carriers don’t win wars,” Anderson said. “They help us protect power, but they don’t capture Saddam Hussein, they don’t kill Osama bin Laden, they don’t bring hostages home, they don’t win wars. People win … and I want them to be as insulated as an F-22 Raptor in the sky,” he said.
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