SECDEF promises drone dominance

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth hosted a small Unmanned Aircraft System (sUAS) demonstration at the Pentagon, July 10, 2025. The event showcased the Secretary of Defense’s initiative of "Unleashing U.S. Military Drone Dominance" and comes on the heels of the first live-fire combined arms training exercise to include sUAS hosted by the Marine Corps at the School of Infantry – East.

The directives detailed in SECDEF Hegseth's memorandum are intended to support the US industrial base, reform acquisition, and rapidly field new technologies for the warfighter. According to the SECDEF, lethality will be enhanced by harnessing technologies invented in the US that then get mired in the DoD's labyrinthine acquisition process or are not pursued rapidly enough due to cumbersome test and evaluation processes. Drone technology and application is advancing so rapidly that the US will be left behind if the system doesn't change.

The new directives are intended to bolster the U.S. drone manufacturing base by approving hundreds of American products for purchase, leverage private capital to purchase a variety of low-cost drones to rapidly arm combat units, and to also release new and extra funding sources to enable more drone-based training to bring US forces up to speed with the realities of modern drone warfare as quickly as possible.