All U.S. Army squads could be equipped with small attack drones by the end of next year as the Pentagon looks to expand drone production and cut red tape under a new directive from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
In a Thursday memo, Mr. Hegseth wrote of the importance of drone warfare on the modern battlefield. He chided the Biden administration for failing to provide U.S. service members with the necessary equipment.
“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,” Mr. Hegseth wrote. “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.”
Mr. Hegseth wants all U.S. Army squadrons to have access to small, one-way drones by 2026. According to the secretary, the technology is a “critical force enabler” that should be prioritized on the same level as other major weapons systems.
He added that U.S. Indo-Pacific Command units should be prioritized during the initial rollout.
“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 memo states, referring to unmanned aerial systems.
The memo follows President Trump’s June 6th executive order, which focused on enhancing domestic production of unmanned aerial systems. Mr. Hegseth is using that executive order to rescind a series of Biden-era restrictions on drone production and procurement.
Specifically, the directive rescinds a 2021 memorandum that outlined rules for the procurement and operation of UAS, which restricted the purchase and use of drones manufactured in foreign nations.
Mr. Hegseth is also looking to end a 2022 memorandum titled “Exception to Policy Requirement for Blue Small Unmanned Aircraft System,” which details circumstances where UAS could be procured or operated outside of typical Department of Defense policy.
Mr. Hegseth wrote that the purpose of rescinding the memoranda is to deliver control back to training commands and operational forces. The Thursday memo gives U.S. Army captains the authority to “procure, test and train” with small UAS.
Additionally, under the directive, commanders are encouraged to modify and innovate using “three-dimensional printing, key component purchasing, and other mission-specific opportunities.”
The memo also rolls back a policy that counts all drones as “durable” government property. According to Mr. Hegseth, small UAS drones are closer to munitions than fighter jets.
“They should be cheap, rapidly replaceable, and categorized as consumable,” Mr. Hegseth wrote. “The Secretaries of the Military Departments will modify or delete all internal policies overregulating procurement, testing, training, and fielding of small UAS that are inconsistent with this guidance.”
