Allen Control Systems

Overview

An Austin Startup Turned Machine Guns Into Drone Defense

ACS headquarters and its first production line sit on St. Elmo Road in South Austin, expanded to more than 57,000 square feet in February 2026. In September 2026 the company added a 191,000-square-foot factory at 15700 Long Vista Drive in north Austin, a former Farmers Insurance building, plus an engineering office in Mountain View, California. It also keeps a showroom in Alexandria, Virginia, and research sites at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and Huntsville, Alabama.

Steven Simoni and Luke Allen are former US Navy nuclear engineers who worked on reactor instrumentation and control, then co-founded Bbot, a restaurant robotics company DoorDash bought in 2022. Mike Wior co-founded Omnivore, a restaurant point-of-sale company Olo bought in 2022. Wior is now CEO, Simoni president and Allen chief technology officer. Revelio Labs estimates headcount at about 220, up 95% in a year.

ACS is part of the Austin defense startup group with Saronic Technologies, and Bullfrog is trained against Army doctrine at Fort Hood up I-35.

Product

Bullfrog Puts Machine Vision on Guns the Military Already Owns

Bullfrog mounts an existing M240 7.62mm machine gun or M2 .50 caliber gun on a robotic turret with passive electro-optical sensors, so it finds drones without emitting radar. Software detects, tracks and aims; a human operator authorizes each shot. ACS says the system handles Group 3 unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and smaller, costs about $10 per engagement in some configurations, and scored 100% at the Department of War's T-REX 26-1 counter-drone test.

In October 2025 ACS launched FAFOS (Friend and Foe Operating System), a long-range optical drone identification product that classifies aircraft before an engagement decision.

Cheap drones come mostly from China. DJI of Shenzhen dominates the global commercial drone market, and Chinese-made motors, cameras and batteries fill the first-person-view (FPV) drones used by the thousands in Ukraine. Bullfrog answers those drones with ammunition the Army already stocks instead of interceptor missiles.

Customers

Army, Marines, SOCOM and Three Allied Militaries

On September 29, 2026 the Army and Joint Interagency Task Force 401 (JIATF-401), the Pentagon counter-drone office, awarded 10 counter-UAS IDIQ (indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity) contracts for the Domestic Shield program protecting US bases. ACS received a $500M ceiling through September 2029, alongside DroneShield, L3Harris WESCAM, SRC and others. About 80 Bullfrog turrets were reported committed for 2026.

Funding

$242M Raised in Three Rounds

Smash Capital led the June 5, 2026 Series B with Craft Ventures, Rally Ventures, Inspired Capital, Litquidity and Forum Ventures. ACS said the money goes to scaling Bullfrog manufacturing and new autonomous systems.

Related coverage

Related Coverage

• Saronic Technologies
• Fort Hood Killeen Defense Cluster
• Golden Dome Texas Corridor
• Austin Aerospace and Space Corridor
• Capital Factory
• Lockheed Martin Fort Worth