Responding to a recent presidential directive to bolster American drone capabilities, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the military services to take a more aggressive role in quickly purchasing small drones and related components with a goal to widely field these systems by the end of 2026.
Hegseth’s order is effective immediately and directs commanding colonels and Navy captains to enable the procurement, testing, training of Group 1 and 2 unmanned aircraft systems (UAS)—with a bias toward American-made.
“Commanders are encouraged to engage in local innovation through three-dimensional printing, key component purchasing, and other mission-specific opportunities,” the defense secretary says in his July 10 memorandum to senior Pentagon leaders, Combatant Commands, and defense agencies.
Hegseth says that the colonels and captains can nominate systems and components for “priority” review by the Defense Innovation Unit’s Blue UAS List, which includes drones and related components that have been vetted for secure supply chains and cybersecurity requirements. The defense secretary also ordered the military service secretaries to “program, plan, and budget” using fiscal year 2025 and 2026 funds from their respective department-level accounts for testing and training of the small drones.
Group 1 drones weigh up to 20 pounds with a payload, and Group 2 up to 55 pounds.
Buying small UAS quickly is one of Hegseth’s imperatives so that U.S. forces can train like they will fight.
“To simulate the modern battlefield, senior officers must overcome the bureaucracy’s instinctive risk-aversion on everything from budgeting to weaponizing and training,” he writes. “Next year I expect to see this capability integrated into all relevant combat training, including force-on-force drone wars.”
And Hegseth wants wide distribution of these assets.
“By the end of 2026, every squad will have low-cost, expendable drones, prioritizing the Indo-Pacific combat units and consistent with other Secretary of Defense strategic guidance documents,” the memo says.
This summer, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command is expected to be operational with the first all-domain, autonomous attritable systems under the Replicator initiative begun two years ago during the Biden administration. Replicator is aimed at quickly delivering autonomous, unmanned systems to U.S. warfighters, with an early emphasis on the Indo-Pacific area.
The Army this month said that over the next year it wants 10,000 small UAS that cost less than $2,000 each (Defense Daily, July 8).
Hegseth is giving authority to training command and operational forces to enable frontline personnel within 24 hours to modify their drone needs.
Once testing is done, senior officers and government personnel that are first up the chain are empowered to approve “large purchases of UAS and critical components” that are American made and directly certify them as Blue UAS compliant based on DIU’s requirements, the memo says.
“The Deputy Secretary of Defense has final approval of the Blue UAS checklist,” Hegseth says.
As of Jan. 1, 2026, the Defense Contract Management Agency will take over publication and management of the Blue UAS List, he says.