Pentagon Requests Purchase of 60,000 Attack Drones for 'Deep Strikes' - Sarmad

The US Department of Defense, commonly known as the Pentagon, is preparing to issue purchase orders for 60,000 small attack drones from nine companies, following the second round of its “Drone Dominance” program. Each of the two companies, Perennial Autonomy and Neros, is set to receive the maximum initial order of 8,000 units.

The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), which manages the program, announced in collaboration with the Test Resource Management Center that it has begun issuing the orders after the completion of “Gauntlet II,” a month-long flight test held last August at Fort Carson, Colorado.

The orders were distributed equally between two mission categories—deep strike and close-quarters combat—with 30,000 drones allocated to each, in line with each company’s classification.