Operational directed energy brings mobile, repeatable engagement to WrapShield™, targeting the economics of low-cost drone threats while expanding WRAP's addressable federal, border security and specialized public safety markets

MIAMI, Aug. 24, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Wrap Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: WRAP) (“WRAP” or the “Company”), a global public safety technology company delivering intelligent detection, orchestration and response solutions designed for the next generation of human-centered public safety, today announced the expansion of its strategic relationship with Frenel Imaging Ltd. (“Frenel”) into a broader commercial framework through which advanced technologies sourced by Frenel can be brought into WRAP’s WrapShield™ platform and commercialized across United States and NATO markets.

The first capability being advanced under that framework is laser directed energy for counter unmanned aircraft systems (C-UAS), in which Frenel’s passive thermal polarimetric detection and classification technology is being integrated as the perception and tracking layer for laser effector systems developed by an established directed-energy manufacturer.

The announcement comes five days after WRAP disclosed a $12.0 million institutional financing. The Company now looks to expand WrapShield across a larger public safety, defense and enterprise market. This is the first capability advanced under that initiative.

Laser Directed Energy: Mobile, Scalable and Built for Repeated Engagement

The directed-energy technology being advanced through the Frenel relationship includes a family of fiber-laser counter-UAS capabilities designed to address different operational environments.

Approximately 3 kW man-portable configuration designed for a smaller, deployable counter-UAS footprint.
Approximately 6 kW mobile vehicle or pickup-mounted configuration designed to move with the mission and provide counter-UAS protection across changing operating areas.
Approximately 9–12 kW stationary or fixed-site configuration designed for protection of installations, infrastructure and other persistent operating locations.
Integrated gimbal and fire-control subsystems supporting precision pointing, tracking and controlled target engagement.
Dazzler capability as part of the associated directed-energy product architecture.
Speed-of-light energy delivery once a target has been detected, tracked and positively authorized for engagement.
Rapid repeated-engagement capability, reducing dependence on a finite inventory of traditional kinetic interceptors.
Magazine depth primarily constrained by available power rather than interceptor inventory, creating fundamentally different economics for sustained counter-UAS operations.
Mobile employment, allowing directed-energy response to move with operational requirements rather than remaining limited to permanent defensive positions.
Integration with external sensing, tracking and command-and-control, allowing the laser to operate as an effector within a broader coordinated response architecture rather than as a standalone system.

The underlying technology documentation identifies approximately 3 kW man-portable, 6 kW vehicle-mounted and 9–12 kW fixed-site fiber-laser systems together with associated dazzler, gimbal and fire-control subsystems.

For WRAP, the mobile configuration is particularly important.

The Company sees an emerging requirement for counter-UAS protection that can move with the mission: supporting forward locations, border sectors, critical infrastructure and specialized tactical operations where the threat can shift faster than permanent defensive infrastructure can be deployed.

WrapShield Has Been Compounding in Public

WRAP’s recent expansion has been guided by a single operating principle: Lowest Reasonable Response™ - applying the least amount of force reasonably capable of resolving a situation, as early as possible and under human authority. Over the past several weeks, the Company has systematically expanded the WrapShield™ architecture across technology, training, private security, public safety, and new markets, building a coordinated platform designed to detect earlier, respond more proportionately, and create greater accountability across every layer of the response.

July 15 — Expanded Non-Lethal Response: Introduced the Wraptor MX™ multi-shot platform, expanding WrapShield’s non-lethal response layer to three coordinated delivery mechanisms.
July 30 — Expanded into Private Security: Extended WrapReality™ into the private security market through a deployment with Stark Security.
August 7 — Launched WrapTactics™: Completed the training foundation of WrapShield with the enterprise launch of WrapTactics™, an LMS designed to make training, policy, and operational readiness accountable and auditable across the architecture.
August 11 — 103% Year-Over-Year Q2 Revenue Growth: Reported second-quarter financial results reflecting 103% year-over-year revenue growth, alongside the ATF determination that the BolaWrap® 150 is neither a firearm nor a weapon.
August 13 — Launched Safe Response with XINSURANCE: Expanded into the approximately 1.28 million-person U.S. private security workforce through a certified Safe Response standard combining technology, training, and insurance alignment.
August 14 — Selected for Florida Teacher Safety Initiative: Selected to support a state-funded teacher safety initiative in Florida, further extending WRAP’s training capabilities into community safety and preparedness.
August 19 — Secured $12.0 Million in Growth Capital: Announced a $12.0 million institutional financing.

The Economics of Drone Defense Have Inverted

Low-cost drones are changing the economics of defense. Inexpensive, increasingly autonomous aircraft can force defenders to expend costly, finite interceptors, while emerging platforms can operate without traditional RF links. Directed energy changes this equation by replacing expensive interceptor inventory with energy, creating the potential for dramatically lower cost per engagement and greater magazine depth.

The Drone Threat Is Moving Beyond the Battlefield

Drone threats are rapidly migrating from military environments into borders, critical infrastructure, correctional facilities, major events, and public safety. As counter-UAS authority expands beyond traditional federal and military users, WRAP believes a significant new market is emerging for technology that can bring proven detection and response capabilities into state, local, and specialized law enforcement environments.

Price Point Determines Market Scale

Counter-UAS capability has historically been priced around the customers able to afford it. Major military installations and combatant commands can support multimillion-dollar fixed-site systems, expensive interceptors, and the infrastructure required to operate them. But the emerging threat is distributed across a much larger global footprint, including forward operating locations, temporary bases, borders, ports, allied military installations, critical infrastructure, and public safety environments. Many of these customers, particularly smaller U.S. agencies, allied and partner nations, and forces operating across multiple dispersed locations, cannot economically deploy traditional counter-UAS infrastructure everywhere it may be needed. The opportunity is therefore not simply to build another high-end counter-UAS system. It is to drive down the acquisition, deployment, and operating costs sufficiently to make effective protection scalable across a much larger domestic and international market.

Directed energy has the potential to change those economics at both the military and public safety levels. A system whose magazine depth is constrained principally by available power rather than expensive interceptor inventory can reduce cost per engagement, support repeated training, and remain operational through sustained or simultaneous attacks. When combined with lighter, mobile configurations that can move with military units, protect temporary or expeditionary locations, integrate onto ground robotic platforms, or be deployed by state and local agencies, the addressable market expands considerably. WRAP believes the winning counter-UAS architecture will not be defined by performance alone. It will be defined by the combination of performance, mobility, affordability, interoperability, and an operating cost that allows U.S. forces, allied nations, and public safety agencies to buy it, train with it, deploy it at scale, and actually use it when needed.

Beyond Counter-UAS: A New Tool for Tactical Law Enforcement

WRAP believes the approximately 3 kW portable architecture may also create a new category of directed-energy capability for specialized law-enforcement and SWAT operations. The Company intends to evaluate applications including standoff breaching, lock and barrier removal, and other controlled-access requirements where increasing the distance between an operator and a physical hazard may improve tactical options.

The same portable architecture may also be appropriate for integration onto ground robotic systems, allowing directed energy to be remotely positioned or delivered into environments where sending an officer, agent or service member may create unnecessary exposure.

For WRAP, this illustrates the larger WrapShield opportunity: a technology sourced for one demanding mission can become a common capability across defense, homeland security, tactical law enforcement and unmanned systems.

Extending the WrapShield™ Response Layer

WrapShield is WRAP’s integrated public safety and defense architecture, organized around three layers across 6 tiers. ‘Detect’ provides passive sensing and early identification, including Frenel’s polarimetric imaging and edge processing. ‘Orchestrate’ provides command, coordination and human-supervised decision making. ‘Respond’ provides an expanding family of response capabilities selected according to the threat, the environment, the mission and the applicable authority.

Until now the response layer has addressed threats at human scale and human range, spanning handheld restraint, multi-shot delivery through Wraptor MX and remotely delivered response through unmanned platforms. Directed energy extends that layer into a different threat class entirely and introduces the first non-kinetic effector in the architecture. The tiered logic does not change. It simply now reaches the air.

Operationally the full chain runs as follows:

Detect, classify, track, prioritize, hand off, authorize, engage, assess.

The laser therefore functions as one response option inside a coordinated architecture operating under positive human control, rather than as a standalone weapon. Authorization remains a human decision at every tier, which is the same principle that governs every other capability WRAP fields.

Directed energy is not the correct answer in every environment, and WRAP does not present it as one. Energy based defeat is best suited to installations, border sectors, critical infrastructure and controlled operating areas where standoff and clear engagement geometry can be established. In dense, populated settings the calculus changes, and considerations including falling debris and collateral risk become decisive. That is precisely why the architecture is tiered to provide the flexibility to switch between “soft” and “hard” energy-based interception, and why authorization always remains with a human being. The value of a coordinated response layer is not that it offers a single answer, rather the fact that it offers the appropriate one and can tell an operator which is which.

Frenel as a Technology Pipeline Into WrapShield™

The larger strategic opportunity for WRAP is not limited to directed energy.

Under the expanded framework, qualifying technologies for which Frenel obtains the necessary rights can be introduced into the WRAP relationship for potential inclusion within WrapShield and commercialization through WRAP’s established channels. The structure is designed to create a repeatable technology pipeline rather than a one-time licensing transaction.

WRAP intends to use that pipeline to identify advanced capabilities developed against demanding operational requirements, including technologies developed and matured against real security and battlefield requirements, and to perform the work required to turn them into programs that United States and NATO customers can actually buy. That work includes systems integration, software and command-and-control interfaces, engineering adaptation, productization, United States sourcing and manufacturing where appropriate, cybersecurity, export control compliance, federal procurement readiness, testing, certification, training and sustainment.

It is deliberately unglamorous work, and it is the reason the model is difficult to replicate. Advanced technology developed elsewhere rarely fails on merit in the United States market. It fails on qualification, compliance, supply chain control and the absence of a party willing to carry it through federal procurement. WRAP is aiming to build itself to be that party.

Executive Commentary

“The math of drone defense is upside down. An adversary can field increasingly capable drones at a fraction of what it costs to defeat them with traditional interceptors,” said Jared Novick, President and Chief Operating Officer of WRAP. “Directed energy flips that equation, but only if you can aim it. A laser has to hold a beam on a small moving object long enough to do the work, and that makes the sensing layer the hardest part of the problem rather than the easiest. What we hold through Frenel is precisely the layer that makes a low-cost effector usable in the conditions where these engagements actually happen. And cost is not an abstraction here. A department will not authorize a response that costs more to use than its annual training budget. Getting both numbers down—the cost of the system and the cost of the shot—is what determines whether this capability remains concentrated at major installations or can scale across borders, forward locations, allied forces and public safety.”

“WRAP and Frenel began with a differentiated sensing technology, and the opportunity was always larger than that,” said Scot Cohen, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of WRAP. “Our expanded framework creates a path to bring additional advanced technologies into the relationship where we have the rights to do so, with WRAP providing the integration and commercialization capability around what United States and NATO customers actually require. Directed energy is a powerful demonstration of that model, because it takes WrapShield from seeing a threat earlier to coordinating an effective response against a class of threat we could not previously reach.”

The WrapShield™ Thesis

WRAP believes the convergence of public safety, homeland security, defense, border security, critical infrastructure and autonomous systems is creating a new technology market, and that the defining position in that market will not belong to the best individual sensor or the cheapest individual effector. It will belong to whoever owns the layer where perception and response have to agree.

The Company’s strategy is to build WrapShield as the integration and commercialization architecture across that convergence, combining differentiated sensing, intelligence, command and control, and response technologies around specific customer and mission requirements. The model is demanding to execute:

Identify differentiated technologies capable of solving operational problems that current tools do not solve.
Integrate them into a coordinated Detect, Orchestrate and Respond architecture rather than selling them as separate components.
Invest selectively where United States adaptation, qualification, sourcing, manufacturing or support creates strategic or commercial value.
Build resilient United States supply and support infrastructure where the mission or the customer requires it.
Support United States federal customers including the Department of War and the Department of Homeland Security against rapidly evolving threats.
Commercialize globally through the markets, partners and channels best suited to each opportunity.
Accelerate advanced technologies to the operators who need them most through vertical integration, cost discipline and a training-first foundation.

WRAP does not intend to relocate technology or manufacturing to the United States for its own sake. The Company intends to build United States controlled technology, supply chain and support capability where doing so creates strategic value, including where required to serve federal customers, to satisfy security, procurement or restricted value chain requirements, to improve supply chain resilience, to provide domestic sustainment and lifecycle support, or to address the scale of the United States market.

Frenel expands the technology pipeline and R&D resources. WRAP determines where to invest and then streamlines and integrates the capabilities through WrapShield. Where the mission requires it, WRAP intends to build the American infrastructure necessary to support the American customer.

About Wrap Technologies, Inc.

Wrap Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: WRAP) is a global public safety technology company delivering intelligent detection, orchestration and response solutions designed for the next generation of intelligent, human-centered public safety. The Company’s WrapShield™ platform unifies detection, orchestration and response into an integrated, human-supervised architecture spanning law enforcement, homeland security, defense, enterprise and critical infrastructure customers. Powered by the BolaWrap® 150, Wraptor MX™, WRAP Reality™, the WrapTactics™ learning management system and Frenel TPiCore® polarimetric sensing, WRAP builds on the principle that technology and trained human judgment must advance together. For Humans, By Humans. WRAP is headquartered in Miami, Florida. For more information visit www.wrap.com.

About Frenel Imaging Ltd.

Frenel Imaging Ltd. develops and licenses the TPiCore® polarimetric image signal processing framework and associated polarimetric thermal, near-infrared and daylight sensors, providing passive day-and-night detection, classification and discrimination of unmanned aircraft and other targets, including against cluttered and below-skyline backgrounds and without radio-frequency emission.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding the expanded framework with Frenel Imaging Ltd., the development, integration, qualification and commercialization of directed-energy counter-UAS capability, the anticipated use of proceeds from the Company’s recent financing, the expansion of the WrapShield platform and its response layer, potential tactical law-enforcement, standoff breaching, lock or barrier removal and ground-robotic applications, potential future technologies and partnerships, addressable markets, and the Company’s strategic direction. The integration described in this release is in a development phase, has not completed demonstration or qualification, and no assurance can be given that it will be completed on the anticipated timeline or at all. Definitive agreements relating to the underlying collaboration have not been executed and there is no obligation on any party to enter into them. Statements are based on current expectations and assumptions subject to risks and uncertainties, including the pace of customer and agency adoption, the timing and outcome of federal procurement and export control processes, the availability and terms of technology partnerships, regulatory developments, competitive conditions, and the Company’s ability to attract and retain personnel. Actual results could differ materially from those expressed or implied. WRAP undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward looking statement, and investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on them.

Investor Relations Contact:
(800) 583-2652
ir@wrap.com
Wrap.com

WRAP: Laser Counter-UAS Technology Added to WrapShield™, Expanding Into DoW, DHS and Tactical Law Enforcement Markets