Allen Control Systems, a Texas company whose flagship product shoots down drones, has a showroom in Alexandria with nothing to show. The Austin company opened the 3,200-square-foot retail space on Mt. Vernon Avenue in Del Ray last year but has been unable to display its Bullfrog, which uses robotics and other technologies to fire projectiles at lightweight and fast-moving drones. The reason? Demand has been so strong that it can’t keep the few prototypes it has built in one place for long. Steve Simoni, president and co-founder of ACS, told me Bullfrog is constantly traveling to military bases, government demonstrations and industry conferences across the country. It has yet to make a permanent appearance at 1901 Mt. Vernon Ave.
“We plan on putting the museum, nonfunctioning, original prototype in there,” Simoni said. “But we’ve just been so busy trying to meet the demand of a lot of stuff that we haven’t had time to do that.” Simoni signed a three-year lease for the showroom space with McEnearney Commercial, aiming to create a central hub for defense officials and others in the national capital region to see Bullfrog in person. ACS is spending $8,000 a month for the space, Simoni said, and the startup, founded in 2024, made about $100,000 in renovations to convert what was a former BB&T Bank branch into a more modern space with earth-tone furniture, a golf simulator and a podcast studio where Simoni hosts “The Drone Ultimatum,” a weekly defense tech-focused show.

Full report : Defense tech firm’s empty showroom highlights demand for its anti-drone systems.

For more see the OODA Company Profile on Allen Control Systems.