The Pentagon will place orders for 30,000 small attack drones in the coming days. The drones come from winners of the military’s “Gauntlet” competition and will reach troops within five months.
Travis Metz, the Pentagon’s program manager for the Drone Dominance initiative, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the selection process just finished. About 100 soldiers and marines tested drones from 25 companies in combat-like situations at Fort Benning, Georgia.
The Drone Dominance program aims to arm every Army squad with small attack drones by late 2026. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pushed for this rapid expansion in a July 2025 memo calling for faster drone deployment.
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During testing, operators received just two hours of training per drone. They flew missions up to 10 kilometers away to hit specific targets. Soldiers also voted on whether they would trust each drone in real combat.
The first phase will cost about $5,000 per drone, totaling $150 million. The Pentagon hopes to lower that price to $2,000 per unit as the program grows.
A second testing phase starts in August. Drones will face GPS signal loss, communication jamming, and electronic warfare. The Pentagon is letting companies find their own solutions rather than dictating technical requirements.
Some lawmakers questioned the speed. Senator Jeanne Shaheen noted that Ukrainian drone makers upgrade their designs every two weeks based on battlefield lessons. Metz responded that several Ukrainian companies joined the Gauntlet competition and plan to build manufacturing plants in the United States.
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The program shows how fast the military is adopting drone technology. Getting 30,000 attack drones to soldiers within months would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.
