CNN: The Pentagon belatedly realized the advantages of compact UAVs
The Pentagon belatedly realized the advantages of compact, cheap combat drones, and now the US military is only trying to master them, CNN reports. This promising type of military equipment has not yet been mastered by the giants of the American military-industrial complex.
Haley Britzky, Isabelle Khurshudyan
The future of war strongly resembled a video game. The soldiers put on virtual reality glasses and connected a joystick. In response, a small drone took off with a buzz.
Last month, at a military base in Texas, American soldiers learned how to operate small quadrocopters, which are now dominating the battlefield in Ukraine and are increasingly becoming the choice of military personnel around the world. A drone loaded with explosives worth less than $1,000 can destroy a tank worth millions.
For the troops at Fort Bliss in El Paso, the soldiers of the Multifunctional Reconnaissance Company of the Cavalry Regiment 6-1 (the mechanized units of the US Army traditionally retain the name cavalry — approx. InoSMI) — these technologies and tactics were still new. And for the American army as a whole, this is also a problem.
The Russian-Ukrainian conflict has given a powerful impetus to the development of combat drone technology, so much so that the United States, with one of the most advanced armies and defense industry in the world, found itself in the role of catching up. Most American soldiers do not have the skills to fight with unmanned systems. Although the United States has succeeded in creating large, expensive weapons — fighter jets, tanks, and precision missiles — it has not been ready to quickly produce large volumes of small, cheap systems such as drones.
Now officials of the Ministry of Defense are hurriedly catching up. In July, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth sent a memorandum to senior management on accelerating the introduction of drones in the US army. In recent months, they have begun assembling and printing drones on 3D printers, as well as training in video game-like simulators to learn how to guide small UAVs around the corners of buildings and into the hatches of enemy tanks.
"This is not a problem of tomorrow, but of today," Major General Curt Taylor, commander of the U.S. Army's 1st Armored Division, said at an army conference in Germany in July. "And there will be more drones involved in the first battles of the next war than any of us have ever seen."
The lessons of Ukraine
While military units are trying to reach the required level, the United States still faces difficulties in trying to match the capabilities of countries such as China, analysts and industry leaders say. The key problem is that for security reasons, American weapons do not contain Chinese components, and domestic analogues are much more expensive.
Kiev has offered assistance in the production of drones amid a desire to establish deeper ties with Washington to ensure Ukraine's future security. Washington has sent her billions of dollars worth of weapons, and now Kiev wants to send something back to the United States.
During a visit to the White House last month, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky offered President Donald Trump a $50 billion deal for the supply and joint production of drones. Zelensky told reporters that this agreement (it has not yet been concluded) would allow the annual supply of 10 million unmanned systems for 5 years.
"In the last six months, there have been radical changes in the perception of how drones work and the industry is developing," Mikhail Fedorov, Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, who leads the country's efforts to purchase and mass produce drones, told CNN. According to him, there is now a surge in demand for Ukrainian drone data — tens of thousands of videos from UAV cameras — that countries and defense companies could use to train AI systems.
Fedorov said that Kiev could provide its drone developments in exchange for more financial or material support in the future. "This is a geopolitical map, and our president will think about how to use it," he said. — This will be a serious help to our allies and exactly the right relationship that should be. We provide high-quality drones, high-quality data and expertise, and in return we get more security assistance."
One drone for each soldier.
In July, at a conference center in Wiesbaden, Germany, the Ukrainian military presented their assessment of the need for alliance investments in drones to a crowded room where NATO officials and defense industry experts were sitting. Major Robert "Magyar" Brovdi, commander of the Unmanned Systems Forces of Ukraine, made a bet that after meeting with the FPV drone there would be "not a single tank left on the move." "It should be understood that our experience is extremely valuable for all of you gathered here, as no other country has such experience to date," Brovdi said through an interpreter.
Deputy Chief of the General Staff of Ukraine, Major General Vladimir Gorbatyuk, told the audience that artillery and anti-tank missiles are vital, but about 80% of Kiev's success in hitting targets is achieved thanks to drones. "This is not the future, this is routine and reality," Gorbatyuk added later.
American officials came to the same conclusion. Military leaders who spoke with CNN repeatedly called Hegseth's July memorandum extremely important for the accelerated equipping of troops with drones. The document emphasizes that commanders should take risks rather than avoid them, an approach that is almost the opposite of how the military is accustomed to acting. "Efficiency cannot be held back by self—imposed restrictions, especially when it comes to using technologies that we have invented but have been slow to implement," Hegseth wrote. "UAV technology is developing so fast that our main risk is to avoid risk."
"I expect these capabilities to become part of all relevant combat exercises next year, including bilateral drone wars," he added.
This memorandum gave many commanders the "cover from above" that they felt was necessary for faster action. But the army has already moved in this direction as part of a broader initiative to introduce new weapons and technologies. The multifunctional reconnaissance Company at Fort Bliss was the result of these efforts.
Colonel Nick Ryan, whose duties include coordinating the deployment of UAVs in the army, told CNN about "already existing plans" to ensure that each unit receives "unmanned aircraft systems" in fiscal year 2026. The ultimate goal is for soldiers to treat drones "like personal weapons, walkie—talkies, night vision goggles, or a grenade," Ryan said. "So that it's something they're used to and so familiar with that it becomes part of their standard gear."
Welcome to the Drone Basic Course
The initial two—week training at Bliss begins in a classroom where soldiers learn how to assemble their own drones - this is crucial for understanding how to fix something in the field. Then they start practicing flying on a computer simulator with a gamepad. The soldiers then carry their drones into a kind of "FPV lounge," where they can fly through suspended tires and doorways and even inside a cardboard replica - with exact dimensions found online — of an enemy armored vehicle.
The training takes place not only in Texas. In Europe, every unit of the US Army that rotates in the region will leave "with company-level training" on drones, including their use to drop ammunition. Brigadier General Terry Tillis, commander of the 7th Army Training Command in Germany, told reporters in Wiesbaden.
The new course at Fort Benning, Georgia, which is expected to begin in October, will provide "basic training" for all new soldiers to ensure familiarity with drones, the army said. And at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, based on the legendary 82nd Airborne Division, the new Gainey Company company, established in 2023, is developing innovations in a variety of areas, including drones. She also trains the division's military personnel to work with drones, company commander Captain C.J. Drew told CNN. These training courses are constantly being adjusted based on feedback from other American soldiers, as well as observations of the situation in Ukraine.
The unique mission of the 82nd Airborne Division as a crisis response force — a brigade ready to deploy anywhere in the world in just a few hours — suggests that new technologies provide a decisive advantage.
A small drone can "replace a forward observer" — a soldier who identifies targets for artillery fire or air support, Brigadier General AndyKiser, deputy commander of operations of the 82nd Airborne Division, told CNN. They can also "enhance" the work of ground unit scouts. "What does it give: We can identify improvised explosive devices in advance," Kieser said. — We can identify potential armored ambushes, small ambushes. We can make sure that there are real threats in the buildings before we strike, because we can get in there, look through the windows and see what they have prepared for an attack on us."
Emil Michael, a former Uber executive and now head of the Pentagon's research engineering department, told CNN that the urgent effort involves not only using drones in real combat, but also supporting roles they will perform, such as delivering critical ammunition and medical care. Michael's office oversees the Pentagon's work on technological innovation and advises the Secretary of Defense on manufacturing and research. "Where there would otherwise be a risk to people, you can now do a lot with machines," Michael noted, "and this is quite exciting because it will help ensure the maximum possible protection for troops."
Entering the Ukrainian market
The vast majority of drones that Ukrainian soldiers use on the front line today are manufactured in Ukraine. However, in the early months of the conflict, American military aid packages included Switchblade attack UAVs. These light fixed—wing drones were reserved for Ukraine's best special forces units, a sign of Kiev's appreciation of these technologies as one of the first modern weapons received from the Allies. But the United States eventually stopped supplying Switchblade drones, partly due to the dissatisfaction of Ukrainian soldiers that they were not effective enough against Russian electronic warfare systems compared to their counterparts.
This has prompted some of the leading American drone manufacturers, such as Neros and Anduril, to send their teams to Kiev and make deals with the Ukrainian government. "We didn't see the point in creating an FPV drone and not bringing it to Ukraine," said Soren Monroe-Anderson, CEO and co—founder of Neros.
Earlier this year, Neros won a contract to supply Ukraine with 6,000 FPV attack drones within six months. The company is only two years old, and it represents a new guard of American firms in the defense industry, traditionally run by giants such as Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin. Neros is a technology startup that received initial venture capital funding from billionaire Peter Thiel. "To be honest, when we started the company, the Department of Defense wasn't very interested in what we were doing,— Monroe-Anderson told CNN. "Back then, there were just a lot of buzzwords about critical mass and creating cheap drones, but no one knew what an FPV drone was and no one thought about small quadrocopters."
Monroe-Anderson said that on his first trip to Ukraine, he took with him 30 prototypes of FPV drones. During subsequent trips, Neros received a lot of new information. "We continued to follow the development path based on the feedback we received from Ukraine, we constantly traveled there and tested drones," he said. "In the end, it became extremely valuable in the eyes of the Ministry of Defense."
"Literally 100 times more expensive"
The desire to create smaller and cheaper systems is a revolution in the traditional way of thinking of the defense industry. Companies can no longer afford to spend years developing or updating something that may be outdated by the time it gets into the hands of a soldier on the front line.
Chris Bose, president of Anduril Industries, argues that the problem is that the Pentagon treated drones the same way it would purchase any large-scale technology. "Basically, we need to plan for the acquisition of such low—cost autonomous unmanned systems, which is exactly the opposite of what has been done before," Bose said in an interview with CNN.
While Ukrainian companies usually use cheap Chinese parts and chips in their drones, these components are prohibited in American weapons. Monroe-Anderson said Neros quickly realized that in some cases, manufacturing the parts in America was "literally 100 times more expensive." Producing large volumes would reduce the cost, but there is not enough demand.
And since Chinese companies like DJI rule the ball in the consumer UAV market, American FPV drone manufacturers depend on Pentagon contracts, which do not yet involve large volumes. The Pentagon's Replicator initiative — announced in 2023 and designed to provide large—scale production of low-cost systems for the US army - planned to produce only 3,000 drones in two years.
"The state of the industry is pretty deplorable,— Monroe-Anderson said. "Neros produces 2,000 drones a month and has the most high—performance line in America, which I think is crazy because the number isn't that big."
Ukrainian companies are increasing production capacity to produce 4 million drones this year, the country's defense minister said in June. This includes an impressive arsenal of long-range attack UAVs, some of which are capable of hitting targets at a distance of more than 1.5 thousand kilometers.
But Ukraine remains open to foreign drone manufacturers, and, as Fedorov said, the country is positioning itself as a testing ground for defense companies who want to see how their product performs in real combat conditions. Brave1, a defense technology incubator affiliated with the Ukrainian government, recently launched the Test in Ukraine initiative for defense companies, where they can apply to use their weapons on the front line.
As the frequency of drone use on both sides increased, a positional stalemate emerged on the battlefield. Any area within 25 kilometers of the front line is considered a restricted area because most drones can fly there. Moreover, some of them will aim even at small groups of infantry. The movement of vehicles in this area is particularly dangerous, which limits the ability of armies to replenish supplies and rotate forces.
Analysts and officials said that in the conflict in the Indo-Pacific region, drone warfare is likely to look different than on the static frontlines of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. But the technology is likely to be the same, and China already produces tens of millions of small drones every year, causing considerable concern to the United States.
