Secretary of War Pete Hegseth advanced the initiative in July through his “Unleashing U.S. Military Drone Dominance” memorandum, which described how the department would implement the president’s intent. His approach includes growing the U.S. drone manufacturing base, approving large numbers of American products for purchase and arming units with low-cost American-made systems.
“Next year I expect to see [drone] capability integrated into all relevant combat training, including force-on-force drone wars,” Hegseth said, adding that he had already reduced regulations and shifted authorities to unit commanders. He described these changes as “the first step in the urgent effort to boost lethality across the force.”
Hegseth said the department is now entering the next stage of the programme. “The second step is to kickstart U.S. industrial capacity and reduce prices, so our military can adequately budget for unmanned weapons,” he said, noting that support from Congress will initially focus on small attack drones.
“Drone dominance is a billion-dollar program funded by President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill,” Hegseth said, calling it “purpose-built on the pillars of the War Department’s new acquisition philosophy: a stable demand signal to expand the U.S. drone industrial base by leveraging private capital, paired with flexible contracting built for commercial companies, founded by our best engineers and entrepreneurs.” A stable demand signal, he said, would incentivise long-term industry investment.
The department’s request outlines a two-year, four-phase plan beginning early next year, offering $1 billion for the production of large numbers of small unmanned aerial systems for one-way attack missions. The first phase, from February to July 2026, will involve 12 vendors producing 30,000 drones at $5,000 each, totalling $150 million in spending.
Subsequent phases will progressively reduce the number of vendors to five, increase orders from 30,000 to 150,000 units and lower the per-drone cost from $5,000 to $2,300. “Drone dominance will do two things: drive costs down and capabilities up,” Hegseth said. “We will deliver tens of thousands of small drones to our force in 2026, and hundreds of thousands of them by 2027.”
Around 340,000 drones will be produced over two years using Big Beautiful Bill funding, and Hegseth said the programme should leave U.S. industry strong enough to support future military demand at sustainable prices. He added that updated doctrine is equally important and confirmed plans to meet with the services to discuss “transformational changes in warfighting doctrine.”
“I will soon be meeting with the military services to discuss transformational changes in warfighting doctrine,” he said. “We need to outfit our combat units with unmanned systems at scale. We cannot wait. The funding provided by the Big Beautiful Bill is ready to be used to mount an effective sprint to build combat power. At the Department of War, we are adopting new technologies with a ‘fight tonight’ philosophy — so that our warfighters have the cutting-edge tools they need to prevail.”
Hegseth linked the new push to long-term shifts in defence spending and industry consolidation after the Cold War. “However, we now find ourselves in a new era,” he said. “An era of cheap, disposable battlefield drones. We cannot be left behind — we must invest in inexpensive, unmanned platforms that have proved so effective.”
He said drone dominance is central to meeting challenges posed by other nations. “One of my priorities is rebuilding our military,” Hegseth said. “We can’t do that by doing business the same way we have in the past. We cannot afford to shoot down cheap drones with $2 million missiles. And we ourselves must be able to field large quantities of capable attack drones.”
Source: United States Department of War.
