CHAOS Industries VESPID

History

CHAOS Industries, a Los Angeles-based defense technology company founded in 2022, publicly unveiled the VESPID family of very low-cost interceptors on 12 October 2026 at the AUSA conference in Washington. At the time of the announcement, the company stated it was not under contract with any military but was participating in several domestic and international competitions with both variants. Production is planned at the company's El Segundo, California facility, with an initial capacity of 12,000 interceptors per year and a manufacturing architecture capable of expanding to 50,000 units as demand grows. CHAOS has raised a total of $1 billion from investors including 8VC, Accel, and Valor Equity Partners.

Design

VESPID is designed for point and area defense against Group 1–3 unmanned aerial vehicles and one-way attack threats. The family is interoperable with CHAOS Industries' VANQUISH PRIME multistatic radar systems, which provide long-range surveillance and cue the interceptors. The architecture uses commercial off-the-shelf components and simplified assembly to support high-volume production. VESPID is designed to operate in congested electromagnetic environments, using the company's radar transmitter as a datalink to resist jamming, with error detection and correction in the waveform.

The Mk 1 multitube launcher is an existing system from ISS Aerospace, a UK company. The variant can also be integrated with Coyote launchers, a key requirement of the U.S. Army's Next Generation C-sUAS Missile program.

Specifications

VESPID Mk 0

The man-portable Mk 0 is described by the manufacturer as fire-and-forget and designed for austere environments. It fits within Infantry Squad Vehicle and light truck platforms, at a significant weight reduction compared to solid rocket motor and turbojet-based interceptors. Manufacturer-stated specifications are a weight under 10 pounds (4.5 kg), a range of 10+ kilometers, time to target under 100 seconds, and a cruise velocity of 100 meters per second (220 mph).

VESPID Mk 1

Designed for high-density installations, the Mk 1 is a tube-launched variant. Manufacturer-stated specifications are a weight under 12 pounds (5.4 kg), a range of 10+ kilometers, time to target under 100 seconds, and a cruise velocity of 150 meters per second.