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The American startup Picket Defense Systems presented at SOF Week 2026 in Tampa, between May 18 and 21, the Inferno RTC, the world’s first hemispherical rotating turret designed to take down swarms of kamikaze drones in less than 3 seconds with more than 54 fixed barrels at different angles, without emitting a single radar signal.
The system is a dome that rotates in continuous motion.
The barrels remain fixed, distributed at different angles across the surface of the turret.
Instead of a machine gun that points and shoots, the Inferno activates the barrel that is in the correct position at the exact moment.
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The onboard algorithm calculates the drone’s trajectory, chooses the right barrel and ammunition, and fires.
Zero aiming latency.
Detection is completely passive.
Does not use radar.
Uses a 3D microphone array that listens to the sound of the drone’s propeller approaching, and optical cameras that visually confirm.
It is onboard AI with TinyML processing that classifies the target in real-time.
The result is a silent weapon for electronic countermeasures.
Drones equipped with jammers or electronic warfare cannot see the Inferno coming.
Two variants, five calibers
The smaller version weighs 20 kg and has 36 barrels.
The larger version weighs 40 kg and carries more than 54 barrels.
The barrels can fire five different calibers, from light rifle ammunition to low-velocity grenades.
The mix allows each barrel to be optimized for a specific type of drone.
Light drone falls with a grenade at a safe distance.
Medium mass drone takes a shot of intermediate caliber.
Fast kamikaze bomb drone is destroyed with a burst of light ammunition.
The guaranteed kill zone is at 40 meters.
Detection begins around one hundred meters, giving the system about three seconds to choose barrel, caliber, and fire at a typical FPV drone.
Why this turret appeared now
The Inferno RTC is born from recent experience in Ukraine and Israel.
Swarms of FPV drones costing a few dollars each have been taking down anti-aircraft systems worth millions per battery.
The cost-benefit calculation of the anti-aircraft shield has turned upside down in the last decade.
The naval Phalanx CIWS, portable Stinger, and Israeli Iron Dome were designed to intercept missiles and manned aircraft, not cheap disposable swarms.
The Pentagon distributed several parallel contracts last year for startups to develop kinetic solutions against cheap drones.
Picket Defense enters this wave with a recent partnership formed with L3Harris, a giant in military electronics with a presence in the U.S. Army’s anti-drone projects.
The sector has become an open laboratory between startups and traditional contractors.
The Picket Inferno is one of the few solutions that completely forgoes radar.
Other options have gone the laser route, like the AeroVironment’s LOCUST X3, 35 kilowatts, which the U.S. Navy recently tested on aircraft carriers.
Each path has a clear trade-off: the laser is silent and has infinite ammunition, but fails in smoke and bad weather; the kinetic always works, but needs cartridge replacement.
Brazil looks from the outside
Brazil has a potential serious anti-drone problem on the near horizon.
The borders with Venezuela and Colombia have already seen adapted civilian drones in irregular situations.
The annual Iguaçu exercise of the Armed Forces has been training defense against drones for a few years.
But the equipment used is imported, expensive, and radar-dependent.
A single anti-drone battery with radar costs several million dollars, exactly the range that the Inferno RTC aims to replace.
Systems like Picket Defense’s, without radar and with hardware estimated at fractions of that value per unit, change the entire anti-drone defense budget logic.
Looking at it this way, it seems like the type of technology the country should urgently import, or try to replicate with national industry.
I confess it is frightening the pace of these American defense startups: in just over a year they go from zero to tested prototype, while Brazil debates another twelve months of bidding process for a similar system.
And you, does Brazil need to urgently import anti-drone systems like the Inferno or try to develop its own hardware? Tell us.
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