❓WHAT HAPPENED: The Pentagon is implementing a new program aimed at equipping most U.S. Army squads with small attack drones by the end of next year, reversing several Biden-era directives restricting the production and use of unmanned aerial systems (UAS).
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, the U.S. military, and the former Biden government.
📍WHEN & WHERE: The program was outlined in a memo issued by Hegseth on Thursday, July 10, 2025.
💬KEY QUOTE: “The U.S. military has the Nation’s best and brightest in its ranks. Our adversaries have a head start in small UAS, but we will perform a technological leapfrog and establish small UAS domain dominance by the end of 2027. We will accomplish this urgent goal by combining the Nation’s best qualities, including risk-taking.” — Secretary Hegseth
🎯IMPACT: The initiative is part of a broader Pentagon effort to adjust and update military tactics in response to the evolution of drone warfare, and will prioritize equipping units under the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command. Notably, small drones have become key weapons in Ukraine and the Middle East in recent years.
President Donald J. Trump‘s Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, is eyeing a significant overhaul of how the United States Army utilizes drone technology. A new directive issued by Secretary Hegseth could see most U.S. Army squads issued small attack drones for use in combat by the end of next year.
The initiative is part of a broader Pentagon effort to adjust and update military tactics in response to the evolution of drone warfare seen in the ongoing conflict between Ukraine and Russia, as well as the utilization of small drones by the Islamic Republic of Iran and its terror group proxies in the Middle East.
“While global military drone production skyrocketed over the last three years, the previous administration deployed red tape. U.S. units are not outfitted with the lethal small drones the modern battlefield requires,” Hegseth wrote in a memo issued on Thursday. He continued: “I am rescinding restrictive policies that hindered production and limited access to these vital technologies, unleashing the combined potential of American manufacturing and warfighter ingenuity.”
“The U.S. military has the Nation’s best and brightest in its ranks. Our adversaries have a head start in small UAS, but we will perform a technological leapfrog and establish small UAS domain dominance by the end of 2027. We will accomplish this urgent goal by combining the Nation’s best qualities, including risk-taking,” the Defense Secretary added.
Notably, the program’s initial phase will prioritize equipping units under the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command with small attack drones. This appears to reflect the Pentagon’s concern over increasing Chinese aggression in the Pacific and the communist country’s own utilization of unmanned aerial systems (UAS).
In June, President Trump signed an Executive Order aimed at boosting U.S. production of UAS weapons and other drone technology. Trump’s order effectively clears the way for Secretary Hegseth to scrap a series of restrictions established by the former Biden government on the production, acquisition, and use of small drone systems for military purposes.
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