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Unmanned Systems

DoD’s Drone Dominance Programs Opens Lethality Prize Challenge For Group 1 UAS

By Cal Biesecker

Thursday, April 2nd, 2026

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DoD’s Drone Dominance Programs Opens Lethality Prize Challenge For Group 1 UAS

Image of a Draganfly drone integrated with the MMS Products' Mjolnir delivery system for munitions carry. Image: Draganfly

To jumpstart the munitions payload ecosystem for small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), the Pentagon’s Drone Dominance Program has initiated a prize challenge for lethal payloads, according to an April 2 notice. Winners of the challenge will receive $10,000 in cash and be added to a preferred munitions solutions list for the upcoming $300 million second phase of program’s series of challenges, called Gauntlet’s, that begins this summer. At an industry day in March hosted by the Drone Dominance Program, the…

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