Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has directed the Pentagon to embark on the largest unmanned systems buildup in U.S. history — an effort that could deliver more than 300,000 small drones over the next several years.

The call for drone dominance has taken center stage in U.S. defense strategy, with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announcing an

The training showed integrating new systems such as drones is not easy. Commanders are betting the often-frustrating lessons will pay off on the battlefield.

According to the Breaking Defense, the US Army wants its next large unmanned aerial system to carry modular payloads. This includes powerful laser weapons capable of knocking drones out of the sky at a fraction of the cost of traditional interceptors.

The Army is giving the AH-64E Apache a new mission, transforming the iconic gunship into a fast-moving drone killer designed to protect troops from the swarm threats shaping modern war.

The Lebanon County facility, with a long military aviation history, is in the running for one of three U.S. Army hubs for applied drone research.

U.S. Army Soldiers of 1st Engineer Battalion, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, pilot drones during the Forward Land Forces expansion at Bemowo Piskie Training Area, Poland, Nov. 17, 2025. The FLF expansion highlighted the NATO Battlegroup’s ability to rapidly move tanks,

U.S. soldiers deployed to Europe had a busy November testing out counter-drone systems that the service hopes to get into the hands of more NATO allies, as well as with units and allies as far away as the Indo-Pacific.

On Tuesday, the Pentagon released an open call to industry to rapidly obtain and deploy over 300,000 small one-way-attack drones — with the Pentagon hoping to put them into the field at such a pace that operators can learn to use them within two hours.