The initial phase, known as the “gauntlet,” begins February 18 at Fort Benning, where vendors will bring unmanned aircraft system prototypes for hands-on evaluation by military personnel. Participants will train troops on the systems before military operators test them in mission scenarios, including their ability to locate, lock on and destroy targets.
At the end of the first gauntlet, systems will be scored and up to 12 vendors will be selected to produce drones at scale for the department. Those vendors will deliver a combined 30,000 units by July at an average cost of $5,000 per drone.
Across three additional gauntlets, the number of vendors will be reduced from 12 to five as orders rise from 30,000 to 150,000 drones and the unit price falls to about $2,300. “The Drone Dominance Program will do two things: drive costs down and capabilities up,” Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said in a video posted late last year.
“We will deliver tens of thousands of small drones to our force in 2026, and hundreds of thousands of them by 2027.” The department said program funding will support the manufacture of roughly 340,000 small unmanned aircraft systems for combat units over two years.
Officials expect the effort to strengthen U.S. supply chains and manufacturing capacity, enabling the military to buy drones in desired quantities and at affordable prices through regular budgets. The initiative follows an executive order signed last year by President Donald J. Trump directing the United States to expand drone capabilities in both commercial and military sectors, including the delivery of large numbers of low-cost, American-made lethal drones to military units.
