Airbility went to Poland with a kit, not a brochure. At MSPO 2026 in Kielce the Seoul company is showing a layered counter-drone line with Damstech. The radar and radio-frequency detection, jamming, then airborne interceptors that actually close with the target. The portfolio is the AB-U10 net-gun interceptor claimed at about 180 kilometres an hour. The AB-U2, a small kinetic hunter launched from a mothership. The AB-U4L, a canister-fired fixed-wing interceptor aimed at about 300 kilometres an hour and the AB-U60 mothership that carries the hunt. The AB-M1300 eVTOL sits behind them as the larger airframe. Airbility wants the U10 in service by the end of 2026 and the other two interceptors in the first half of 2027. That is an export pitch dressed as an exhibition stand. Europe is buying counter-UAS because cheap drones have already flown into airports, energy sites and army bases. Asia has the same problem and fewer legal tools to finish an engagement.
Detection is not defence. Tan Son Nhat, Hanover, Gatwick and a dozen Indian and Gulf fields have already learned that seeing a drone is the easy minute. The hard minute is authority. Jamming can drop a link if the law allows it and if the spectrum does not also blind the airport’s own radios. Missiles work. They also cost more than the target by one or two orders of magnitude, which is why Airbility’s chief executive has been saying the Ukraine and Iran fights cannot be won by firing a six-figure interceptor at a four-figure airframe. Lasers and high-power microwaves promise cheap shots after the generator is paid for. They bring weather limits, safety zones and the political problem of pointing directed energy over a civilian terminal. A net-gun drone is the other answer. It tries to catch or strike the intruder in the air without punching a hole in a warehouse or a taxiway. Collateral is the whole airport argument. A kinetic kill over a crowded apron is a second accident. A soft capture is slower and still needs a place to land the hunter.
India, Japan, Taiwan and the ASEAN states need that mix in writing. Airports are next to cities. Ports are next to tank farms. Bases sit next to civil runways. A system that can only jam is useless when the operator has no licence to radiate. A system that can only fire a missile is useless when the finance ministry counts cost-per-kill. Airbility is selling Korean origin as a feature. US kit often travels under export controls. A Seoul interceptor that can be locally assembled is easier to put on a Philippine or Indian shopping list. The company says it is already talking in more than nine countries and pricing an engagement in a band from tens of dollars to a few thousand, depending on the round. Those numbers are vendor numbers. They still describe the market. Counter-UAS has left the lab and become an industry that will live or die on whether an airport manager can press a legal button. Poland is shopping. Asia should read the price list before the next drone shuts a runway for two hours.