The Pentagon has invited 25 companies to compete for approximately $150 million in the first phase of its Drone Dominance Program (DDP), an acquisition reform effort aimed at rapidly fielding low-cost, unmanned, one-way attack drones.
The program, rolled out in early December via a request for information, is designed to accelerate the delivery of affordable unmanned aerial systems to strengthen military capabilities for the Defense Department (DOD) – which the Trump administration rebranded as the War Department.
Phase I of the effort, known as the Gauntlet, will begin Feb. 18 at Fort Benning, where military operators will fly and evaluate vendor systems. The evaluation is scheduled to conclude in early March, when the department plans to place approximately $150 million in prototype delivery orders.
Deliveries are expected to begin shortly thereafter and continue for about five months.
The companies invited to compete in Phase I are:
- AI Inc.
- Ascent Aerosystems Inc.
- Auterion Government Solutions Inc.
- Dzyne Technologies LLC
- Ewing Aerospace LLC
- Farage Precision LLC
- Firestorm Labs Inc.
- General Cherry Corp.
- Greensight Inc.
- Griffon Aerospace Inc.
- Halo Aeronautics LLC
- Kratos SRE Inc.
- ModalAI Inc.
- Napatree Technology LLC
- Neros Inc.
- Nokturnal AI
- Paladin Defense Services LLC
- Performance Drone Works LLC
- Responsibly Ltd.
- Swarm Defense Technologies LLC
- Teal Drones Inc.
- Ukrainian Defense Drones Tech Corp.
- Vector Defense Inc.
- S. Darley & Co.
- Xtend Reality Inc.
DDP is structured as a four-phase competition totaling $1.1 billion. The program is intended to place service members at the center of evaluation while driving rapid, competitive development cycles measured in months rather than years. Across the phases, officials said, unit costs are expected to decline as production volumes and operational capability increase.
By 2027, the department expects to field hundreds of thousands of weaponized one-way attack drones ready for combat.
DDP follows a broader push by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to expand drone manufacturing, streamline training, and cut acquisition red tape.
In a July 2025 memorandum highlighted by the department, Hegseth described drone development as both a technological and procedural challenge.
“Drone dominance is a process race as much as a technological race,” Hegseth said in the memo. “We are buying what works – fast, at scale, and without bureaucratic delay.”