In an indication of the profound transformations taking place in modern wars, the US Department of Defense launched a massive race to produce hundreds of thousands of cheap suicide drones, after the wars in Ukraine and Iran showed that small aircraft are now capable of changing the balance of battles and confusing traditional armies.
According to a report by journalist Ian Duncan published by the Washington Post, the Pentagon seeks to build a huge arsenal of attack drones as part of a project valued at $54.6 billion, while this year it launched an 18-month competition under the name “Drones Dominance” with the aim of selecting companies capable of supplying the US Army with up to 300,000 low-cost suicide drones.
Emerging and non-traditional companies are competing in the project, including a company specializing in analyzing grass on golf courses, another associated with aerial lighting shows, in addition to a company founded by a 23-year-old former drone racing champion.
American officials believe that the recent conflicts have revealed a dangerous gap in American military capabilities, especially after Ukraine and Iran demonstrated the effectiveness of small, cheap drones in carrying out complex offensive operations.
The Pentagon has allocated prizes and defense contracts worth $1.1 billion to the winning companies in the first phase of the project, in the hope that this will allow securing huge numbers of aircraft that are described as “cheap flying bombs.”
The competition is currently led by an alliance that includes the British company Skycutter and its Ukrainian partner, in addition to the American company Neros, which was founded by Soren Munro Anderson, the former world champion in drone racing.
Anderson said that the US Army informed him since the start of the competition that it had high hopes for the project, adding: “I like the fact that the competition keeps everyone on constant alert. There are no free meals in the race for drone dominance.”
The diversity of participating companies reflects a new trend within the US Department of Defense to partially move away from the traditional giant defense companies and open up to emerging companies and entrepreneurs capable of providing faster and less expensive solutions.
“I’m very optimistic about the amount of entrepreneurial talent out there. The Defense Department doesn’t have to fund all the research and development itself,” said Travis Metz, deputy director of the Defense Innovation Unit overseeing the project, using the name President Donald Trump’s administration has adopted for the Department of Defense.
The cost of each plane is only about $5,000, and it is designed to be “expendable” according to the American military term, meaning it can be lost in battle without this posing a major problem.
The report indicates that Ukrainian forces succeeded in employing techniques inspired by the world of drone racing to attack Russian tanks with high precision behind battle lines, while Iran also used this type of aircraft in offensive operations outside its borders and in the Strait of Hormuz, despite the heavy American military presence in the region.
Anderson explained that the skills required to win drone races are almost the same as those that allow explosives to be accurately delivered to sensitive military targets, saying: “It is not just about hitting the tank, but about hitting the specific part of it very precisely.”
Despite the enthusiasm within the Pentagon, some military experts expressed doubts about the suitability of the Ukrainian model for the American army, noting that the war in Ukraine is taking place on relatively fixed fronts, while American forces often operate in different and more mobile environments.
Crispin Burke, a former helicopter pilot and drone systems expert, said: “It may be a bit of a stretch to try to get these huge numbers. If the army is constantly advancing, where will it carry all these drones?”
But Metz believes that the future of battlefields will be increasingly dominated by drones, even if the tactics used differ from those adopted in Ukraine.
As part of the competition, the Pentagon organized a series of field tests called “Droner Dominance Corridors,” where the participating systems are subjected to tests of varying difficulty under the supervision of American military personnel. After each stage, the value of the contracts awarded to the winners increases, while the cost that the army will pay for each aircraft decreases.
Twenty-six companies participated in the first round of the competition, which was held last February at Fort Benning, where the drones were tested on their ability to hit office-sized targets from a distance of up to 6 miles, in addition to carrying out strikes inside buildings.
The first round resulted in Skycutter topping the final rankings and obtaining the largest initial contract to supply 2,560 drones, while other companies continued to develop their capabilities in preparation for the next rounds.
The huge American project reflects a growing conviction within the military establishment in Washington that future wars will not only be resolved with expensive fighter planes and missiles, but also with swarms of cheap drones capable of changing the rules of engagement in any battlefield around the world.
