BLUF: The Gauntlet Continues

This week, the Department of War (DoW) and the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) unveiled the top ten performers of the Drone Dominance Phase II Gauntlet. Between them, DoW and DIU have placed orders for 60,000 unmanned systems, marking what we understand to be the Pentagon’s largest small drone acquisition and scaling effort to date.

An order of 60,000 drones may look modest next to the millions produced annually by Ukraine and adversaries like Russia and China. But measured against what came before, the scale of this next phase is staggering. Following Gauntlet I, which placed its first orders in March, only a handful of the selected manufacturers have actually managed to fulfill the requests.

Standing up domestic drone manufacturing free of Chinese parts has come with considerable obstacles. Even so, industry momentum and the Department's needs have driven rapid growth. As the next phase comes online, the real test shifts from how these systems perform in the field to the challenge DOW, industry, and the administration have been working to solve all along: manufacturing capacity.

Whether the United States needs this capacity is largely no longer up for debate. Conflicts in Ukraine, the Middle East, and beyond have underscored the need to build the industrial might required to keep pace in the rapidly evolving drone and battlefield innovation fight. What remains to be seen is whether America's drone builders are up to the task. We're wishing them continued success.

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