WE BUILD WHAT THE ASSESSMENTS KEPT ASKING FOR
Melas was founded to turn identified security gaps into hardware.
Programs
Origins
The Company
For more than a decade, the founder worked in vulnerability assessment, threat
characterization, and risk analysis across the nation’s nuclear security enterprise.
The work kept exposing the same kind of problem: threats becoming cheaper and more capable while the systems built to defeat them became more expensive and harder to field.
Melas Defense Systems was founded in Tennessee in 2026 to work on the other side of that problem: building the hardware.
characterization, and risk analysis across the nation’s nuclear security enterprise.
The work kept exposing the same kind of problem: threats becoming cheaper and more capable while the systems built to defeat them became more expensive and harder to field.
Melas Defense Systems was founded in Tennessee in 2026 to work on the other side of that problem: building the hardware.
How we work
Decisions stay close to the work.
Melas is small. The people doing the technical work are close to the people making decisions about what gets built.
We test early.
Problems are cheaper to find in a test article than late in a program. We build, test, break things, fix them, and keep going.
We keep control of the engineering.
Melas keeps its core engineering and intellectual property in-house and uses partners where they add manufacturing, integration, or test capability.
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Leadership
LEADERSHIP
Jacob Smith
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Jacob Smith is the founder and CEO of Melas Defense Systems. A West Point engineering graduate and former U.S. Army infantry officer, he served in the 82nd Airborne Division and deployed to Afghanistan.
He later spent more than a decade in the nation’s nuclear security enterprise working in vulnerability assessment, threat characterization, and risk analysis across the National Nuclear Security Administration complex, including work related to emerging drone threats.
He founded Melas to move from identifying security gaps to building systems that close them.
He later spent more than a decade in the nation’s nuclear security enterprise working in vulnerability assessment, threat characterization, and risk analysis across the National Nuclear Security Administration complex, including work related to emerging drone threats.
He founded Melas to move from identifying security gaps to building systems that close them.
Presence
Where we work
Knoxville, Tennessee
Melas is based in East Tennessee, near the national laboratory complex, the University of Tennessee, and a strong regional base of engineering, machining, and manufacturing capability.
9111 Cross Park Drive, Suite D211, Knoxville, Tennessee 37923
Get in touch
IF YOU OWN THE PROBLEM, WE SHOULD TALK
Send us the requirement, the platform, or the problem. You’ll get a straight answer about whether Melas can help.
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