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HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – The Army on Tuesday launched its new “Amazon-like” UAS Marketplace, which a lead official said will be the service’s primary method moving forward for procuring Group 1-3 drones.
Col. Danielle Medaglia, project manager for UAS, told reporters the marketplace is available to customers across the Pentagon and other U.S. federal agencies, and potentially international partners in the future, and currently has around 30 Group 1 and 2 systems listed for purchase with an aim to eventually bring on systems from hundreds of companies over the next two years.
“[This] really gives soldiers the access they need to capabilities that meet their needs way different than before, a fundamental pivot in how we execute acquisition for uncrewed aircraft systems,” Medaglia said in a briefing at the Association of the U.S. Army’s Global Force Symposium here.
“Traditionally, you take a long time for a requirement. Then, we have this protracted competition. Maybe you only choose one or two [solutions]. Now, it’s you tell us when you’re ready. We’re going to tell you what the soldiers want. We’re going to constantly have that feedback from the field. And then, when you’re ready, we’re going to test what you have and we’re going to provide on the marketplace, truly, that free market approach,” Medaglia added.
The Army detailed the UAS Marketplace initiative last August, detailing plans to roll out a “digital storefront” that allows units to select specific drone capabilities to fit their mission needs, with an aim to deliver drone capabilities to troops faster with a focus on driving continuous competition and incentivizing industry innovation (Defense Daily, Aug. 8, 2025).
Medaglia noted the Army worked with Amazon Web Services to build out the marketplace.
Along with complete drone capabilities, the Army has described the UAS Marketplace as a “one stop shop” for trusted capabilities, to include air vehicle, payloads, software and autonomy algorithms, with users able to filter systems by group size, range, speed, cost and manufacturing capacity.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a memo last July ordering the military services to more aggressively acquire drone capabilities, with a goal to widely field these systems by the end of 2026, and a Commercial Solutions Opening support the UAS Marketplace notes the initiative also intends to support the White House’s earlier “Unleashing American Drone Dominance” executive order (Defense Daily, July 10).
Lt. Col. Jeff Bess, product manager for the UAS Marketplace, said the 30 systems included on the site at launch includes Group 1 and 2 drones the Army has worked with, systems picked for the Defense Autonomous Working Group’s Drone Gauntlet initiative and capabilities listed on the Defense Contract Management Agency’s Blue List of cleared offerings.
“We’re quickly going to scale to 70 [systems] and beyond in the future,” Bess said.
Bess said the aim is to have Group 3 systems on the marketplace by the summer, depending on funding, and that the Army will also look to offer drone capabilities built by units such as the 101st Airborne Division and 25th Infantry Division.
Group 1 drones weigh up to 20 pounds, Group 2 between 21 and 55 pounds, and Group 3 less than 1,320 pounds.
Unmanned aircraft system listings include a system’s price, technical specifications, details on whether the capability has “right to repair” authority and the site allows users to compare offerings side-by-side.
How to Onboard
The Army is using Basic Ordering Agreements as the contracting mechanism to support the UAS marketplace, according to Bess, who noted the service assesses a company’s lead for production and any potential supply chain bottlenecks before competing those agreements.
Officials told reporters the aim is for continuous onboarding of new capabilities on the marketplace, with the service having previously noted it will utilize a Commercial Solutions Opening it plans to keep open “in perpetuity” (Defense Daily, March 13).
“We’re trying to make it as easy as possible for industry, lowering the barriers for entry, streamlining it, to make it so that they can quickly get onboarded in there, so that soldiers have multiple different solutions they can choose from,” Bess said.
The onboarding process for a new capability is likely to take around 30 days currently, according to Bess, with the Army aiming to shorten that process.
“We definitely want to shrink that down. We’re going to try to automate as much of that as possible, so we can try to get it down into days, if not, maybe weeks,” Bess said.
Vendor to Vendor Benefits
Michael “Ski” Horrocks, deputy project manager UAS, said the Army sees the marketplace also supporting “vendor-to-vendor” opportunities.
“Vendors go in and say, ‘Hey, I see this other sensor out here they can see further. I’d like to use that on my own system as well.’ So we can facilitate vendor to vendor procurement,” Horrocks said.
Brent Ingraham, the Army’s acquisition chief, told reporters here he sees the UAS Marketplace as an opportunity to demonstrate how the service is putting into practice budget line item consolidation authority that was granted for UAS in the latest defense appropriations bill.
Horrocks said the Army has specifically had discussions with congressional staff on its plans for the UAS Marketplace
“What we’re saying with [the] marketplace is we can give you so much more [data] than you had before, like what systems are being procured, from which services, whether it’s Army, Navy or wherever. But also what states are getting this business essentially. So we’re able to just pivot chart our way through all this data that’s being generated out here and share that with Congress, so there’s more transparency than we’ve ever had,” Horrocks said.
The Army has had discussions with allies and partners on potential interest in participating in the UAS Marketplace, which Medaglia said has included the United Kingdom and “a couple other countries.”
“As it matures, this free-market approach to UAS procurement will strengthen international partnerships and streamline Foreign Military Sales processes by delivering mission-specific unmanned systems at the speed of relevance,” the Army said in a statement.
