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Hegseth Lifts Restrictions, Orders Mass Drone Deployment by 2026
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1 day ago
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on 10 July signed a sweeping directive titled “Unleashing U.S. Military Drone Dominance,” ordering the Pentagon to accelerate production, fielding and use of small unmanned aerial systems across all services. The memo eliminates several procurement and operating restrictions imposed in 2021–22 and delegates authority to purchase, test and fly drones to commanders at the colonel or Navy captain level, bypassing multiple layers of oversight. The plan sets an ambitious schedule: the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force must establish deliberately screened experimental formations focused on small drones by 1 September 2025, identify programs that could be replaced by unmanned platforms within 60 days and designate at least three new national drone-training ranges within 90 days. Oversight of the Pentagon’s Blue List of approved drone hardware and software will transfer from the Defense Innovation Unit to the Defense Contract Management Agency by 1 January 2026, with the list converted into a continuously updated digital platform. By the end of fiscal 2026 every U.S. Army squad is to be equipped with low-cost, expendable drones, while broader service-wide integration of unmanned systems into major training events is mandated by 2027. The directive also calls for advance purchase commitments, loans and other incentives to expand domestic manufacturing, and instructs each military branch to stand up dedicated program offices that will compete to field small UAS at scale. Hegseth said the overhaul is needed because adversaries such as Russia and China are producing “millions of cheap drones each year,” outpacing U.S. forces on the modern battlefield. The initiative follows President Donald Trump’s 6 June executive order that made drone technology a cornerstone of national defense and seeks to restore U.S. technological advantage by combining rapid acquisition with a reduced tolerance for bureaucratic delays.
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