Drone Dominance Initiative

The War Department has issued a request for information to industry for the production of approximately 340,000 small unmanned aerial systems over two years as part of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth's "drone dominance" initiative. This $1 billion program, funded through President Trump's Big Beautiful Bill, follows the June 2025 presidential executive order "Unleashing American Drone Dominance" and aims to rapidly build U.S. industrial capacity for mass drone production while driving down unit costs. The procurement will unfold through four competitive phases called "gauntlets," starting with 12 vendors producing 30,000 drones at $5,000 per unit in early 2026, then progressively narrowing to five vendors manufacturing 150,000 units at $2,300 each by 2027.

Strategic Shift in Defense Philosophy

Secretary Hegseth emphasized that this represents a fundamental paradigm shift from the post-Cold War era when defense consolidated around "quality over quantity" with a handful of prime contractors. The initiative seeks to build a stable demand signal that will attract private capital investment and strengthen American drone manufacturing supply chains for the long term, with flexible contracting designed specifically for commercial companies and non-traditional defense contractors. Beyond hardware procurement, Hegseth plans transformational changes to warfighting doctrine, integrating drone capabilities into all relevant combat training with a "fight tonight" philosophy, acknowledging that the military cannot afford to shoot down cheap drones with $2 million missiles while adversaries field massive quantities of disposable attack platforms.

This page is a lightweight preview. The full story is available at the source link below.