a16z-backed ZeroMark aims to equip soldiers with guns designed to never miss against drones
ZeroMark is aiming to revolutionize modern warfare with its innovative fire control system designed to enhance soldiers’ ability to combat drones. Given the increasing prevalence of ultra-cheap, ultra-fast drones in warfare, soldiers often find themselves struggling to shoot down these unmanned aerial systems with traditional rifles. ZeroMark’s solution offers a technological edge that significantly increases the accuracy and effectiveness of infantry soldiers in these high-stakes situations.
ZeroMark’s system consists of two main components:
1. Small Computer with Sensors: This includes lidar and electro-optical sensors that help detect and track drones.
2. Motorized Buttstock: This component adjusts the rifle’s aim to ensure accuracy.
– Machine Vision and Predictive Analytics**: The system uses machine vision to track the drone’s movements and predicts its trajectory. This allows for real-time adjustments to the rifle’s aim, ensuring that the shooter can hit even a small, fast-moving drone with ease.
– Ballistic Calculations: The system performs complex ballistic calculations to refine the shooter’s aim, adjusting the bore axis for optimal accuracy.
– Human Factor Compensation: It compensates for various human factors such as movement, noise, torque, and proprioception (the body’s ability to perceive its own position in space).
The fire control system doesn’t physically move the soldier’s arm but instead creates a virtual pivot between the shoulder pad and handheld positions. This allows the system to make subtle angular adjustments to the rifle’s aim, making it easier for soldiers to hit their targets. As Joel Anderson, ZeroMark’s CEO, explains, “If you point in the general direction of the drone such that you’d be in the vicinity of a drone, the system does the rest.”
Joel Anderson, a former U.S. Navy enlistee and MongoDB’s first CISO and CIO, conceptualized the fire control system after recognizing the lack of advanced technology available to dismounted soldiers compared to consumer products like Tesla’s Full Self-Driving feature. This realization spurred him to create a prototype, which garnered interest from Andreessen Horowitz’s American Dynamism fund partners, Katherine Boyle and David Ulevitch.
Founding and Future Prospects
After receiving positive feedback on the prototype, Anderson formally founded ZeroMark in September 2022. The company’s goal is to provide soldiers with advanced tools to enhance their combat capabilities, thereby offering a significant tactical advantage in modern warfare.
ZeroMark’s fire control system represents a significant leap forward in military technology, offering a practical and high-tech solution to the challenge of drone warfare. With continued development and successful deployment, it has the potential to become a standard tool for infantry soldiers, dramatically improving their effectiveness in the field.
