February Drone Digest: US manufacturers face the Gauntlet and find success abroad
Through the DDP, the Trump administration is aiming to bolster US drone manufacturing to arm combat units with low-cost attack UAVs. (Photo: US Department of Defense)
The US launched the Gauntlet test in February as part of its accelerated attack drone procurement effort while also exploring various naval capabilities that could lead to procurements down the line. Shield AI’s V-Bat, meanwhile, has been stirring up global interest.
Earlier this month, the Pentagon issued an update on the Drone Dominance Program (DDP), a US$1.1 billion effort to acquire hundreds of thousands of first-person view (FPV) attack drones. The initiative is the tentpole programme under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s push to increase the number of uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the US armed forces.
The Pentagon announced that 25 companies were participating in an event dubbed “the Gauntlet”, which would see military operators flying and evaluating low-cost UAVs to help determine which companies would receive a share of $150 million in prototype delivery orders, to be awarded in March.
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