WASHINGTON — The Army is planning a massive overhaul on how it acquires unmanned aerial systems, setting the ambitious goal of buying one million drones over the next two to three years, an Army spokesperson confirmed to Breaking Defense.
Reuters first reported on the drone buy, which could lead to the Army buying half a million to millions of drones annually after the initial acquisition. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll told the outlet in an interview: “It is a big lift. But it is a lift we’re very capable of doing.”
This uptick in drone acquisition will be possible through a new pilot program, called SkyFoundry, an initiative headed by Army Material Command that plans to give the service the tools it needs to quickly develop, test and produce small drones, the Army spokesperson told Breaking Defense.
“SkyFoundry is the Army’s concept for a public-private partnership to help reinvigorate the American Industrial Base. This concept will stimulate the U.S. drone industry, support American manufacturing, increase access to rare earth materials, produce low-cost components, and ultimately deliver drones for immediate needs to the Army,” the spokesperson said.
“Everyone benefits: American industry becomes healthier, the country is safer, and the Army has the system required to produce and procure millions of drones in the next 2-3 years,” they added.
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Driscoll’s goal of drastically expanding the Army’s drone arsenal comes after the service and the Pentagon have embarked on numerous journeys to do so under the second Trump administration. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signed a “drone dominance” memo in July calling on the Defense Department to cut red tape that hinders the department from quickly buying drones at scale, and directs every Army squad to be armed with small, one-way attack drones by the end of fiscal 2026.
Later in July, during a bilateral meeting between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymer Zelensky, the Ukrainian leader teased a possible deal to give the US drones worth $50 billion.
Though not much has been revealed about that particular plan, today at the Annual Military Reporters and Editors Conference, Ukrainian Ambassador to Washington Olha Stefanishyna said, while Ukraine has begun talking to the different US services, it “doesn’t look like we’re about to sign some major like, nice, beautiful agreement.” Instead, she said that with a potential deal there will be a “big degree of flexibility” and Ukraine will do “whatever would work” to get drones to the US based on “force-related needs.”
In September, the FUZE initiative was announced. It’s a venture-capital-like acquisition model designed to speed up the private development of emerging technologies for later use by soldiers, namely tech for drones, counter drones and electronic warfare capabilities. The program aims to wrangle smaller, non traditional vendors to field such tech. Given that nontraditional vendors are a large factor in what drives Ukraine’s drone innovation in its war with Russia, Stefanishyna said today that Ukraine is “absolutely excited” to do work with the program.
The US is far behind in drone production and acquisition compared to other countries, Driscoll told Reuters. He said Russia and Ukraine are able to produce nearly four million drones a year and China is likely to produce more than double that, noting that the US Army only buys roughly 50,000 drones per year.
Though the Army’s plans to acquire more drones have been in the works for several years, Ukraine’s ongoing war with Russia has served as a catalyst to elevate the Pentagon’s drone fleet as the war has shown that small one way attack drones are capable of taking out armored vehicles worth hundreds of thousands of dollars with drones that cost only a couple hundred dollars. This proves that drones are the future of warfare, Driscoll said during his keynote address at the AUSA conference last month.
“If small arms define the 20th century, drones will define the 21st. They’re the perfect convergence of artificial intelligence, advanced materials, batteries and propulsion systems, sensor fusion and much more. They are reshaping how humans inflict violence on each other at a pace never witnessed in human history,” he said at the time.
“For soldiers, we want to push this tech to your formation so that you can employ it, improve it, and absolutely dominate with it. Across the Army, we will equip soldiers with these kinds of expendable drones that deliver devastating effects at a massive discount,” he added.