How AI agents are informing JIATF-401’s procurement plans after Falcon Peak

YUMA PROVING GROUND, Ariz. — Under Brig. Gen. Matt Ross’ leadership, Joint Interagency Task Force 401 is cautiously applying artificial intelligence to review heaps of data the military captured on commercial counter-drone products demonstrated at the recent, month-long Falcon Peak exercise.

“We use AI every day inside of JIATF-401,” Ross told DefenseScoop. “What we’ve learned is there’s some things that it does really well, and there’s some things that it doesn’t do as well.”

The JIATF-401 director shed new light on how his team is turning to agentic AI to speed up and support procurement decisions following Falcon Peak 26.2, in an onstage presentation and a press briefing with a small group of reporters invited to cover U.S. Northern Command’s latest counter-drone experiments in the ongoing series last week at various points on America’s southern border.

“We’re going to buy some equipment coming out of Falcon Peak, because that was the contract we made with industry,” he confirmed.

The Defense Department formally launched JIATF-401 last year as part of a governmentwide campaign under the second Trump administration to better align authorities and resources with its goals for drone defense.