US Pentagon pursues industry input to address drones’ payload and navigation limitations
UAVs deployed in the US Marine Corps Attack Drone Competition in December 2025. (Photo: US Marine Corps)
The US Department of Defence along with its services and agencies have been increasing efforts to enhance the uncrewed aerial vehicle capabilities to succeed in future warfare.
The US military is keen to have industry support to improve the capabilities of its drones and better prepare its uncrewed fleet to succeed on tomorrow’s battlefield. This approach involves overcoming the payload and navigation limitations of uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs).
“As military missions become more complicated, warfighters need more capable drones to use across diverse scenarios,” the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) stated.
Last week, DARPA opened its Lift Challenge, a competition to address payload issues in multirotor UAVs. According to the agency, this US$6.5 million industrial competition is intended “to discover groundbreaking designs that solve one of
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