In a major move to revolutionize the modern battlefield, the Pentagon has officially fired the starting gun on a high–stakes race to build a massive fleet of ‘kamikaze’ drones. The Department of War unveiled a list of 25 small technology and drone companies that have been hand–picked to compete for a chance to transform the future of American warfare. The mission? To quickly field thousands of low–cost, one–way attack drones that can be deployed in swarms to overwhelm and destroy enemy targets.
Pentagon Pivots Toward Mass-Produced Drone Warfare
The announcement marks a radical shift in military strategy, as the US looks to move away from multi–billion–dollar platforms in favor of ‘small, smart, and cheap’ technology that can be mass–produced at lightning speed. Defense giants Kratos SRE Inc. and Halo Aeronautics are two of the more than two dozen vendors in the Department of Defense’s ambitious Drone Dominance Program, according to an official statement released by officials. ‘Drone dominance is a process race as much as a technological race,’ Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a July 2025 memo. ‘We are buying what works –– fast, at scale, and without bureaucratic delay. Lethality will not be hindered by self–imposed restrictions.’
In a move to reclaim the skies, Trump signed a sweeping executive order designed to turn the United States into a global ‘drone superpower.’ The directive, signed in June 2025, outlines military expansion plans focused on keeping it ‘Made in the USA.’ The ‘Gauntlet’ which is the determination first phase, reportedly starts Feb. 18 at Fort Benning, Georgia and finishes in the beginning of March. After they evaluate the company’s systems, the Department of War will purchase roughly $150 million in prototype drones.
Tens of Thousands of Low-Cost Drones Planned
These sample drones will then be sent out over the next five months, the DOD explains. They plan to have 12 vendors produce 30,000 drones at about $5,000 per unit. The department lead said back in December that the US military is burning through taxpayer cash at an ‘unaffordable’ rate to fight the drone wars of the future. Over the course of the invasion, Ukraine has used kamikaze drones so effectively that they are now seen as a cornerstone of modern war, proving their worth through four years of continuous combat with Russia.
The Pentagon’s $1.1 billion program will roll out in four phases, centering its evaluation process on ‘warfighters’ to determine which drones are actually fit for the field. The competitive cycles for improving these drones will be ‘measured in months, not years,’ the Pentagon said. Hegseth’s drone program hopes to quickly assemble hundreds of thousands of drones by 2027.
