Defense Innovation Unit

Stories

Pentagon creates autonomous warfare command to accelerate drone, AI adoption

Feeds into Project Agincourt

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the Autonomous Warfare Command on September 30 and told the Association of the United States Army in October that the four-star command was always the end state. The command would buy and field drones, robots, and artificial intelligence across the military, with a target stand-up date of October 1, 2027.

Updated Oct 21

America's race to mass-produce combat drones

New Capabilities

As of May 2026: Managing Blue UAS certification

The Pentagon spent $398 million on small drones in 2022. Four years later, as Ukraine demonstrated that $400 drones could destroy $10 million tanks, Congress authorized $1.7 billion—a fourfold increase. Now the Department of Defense has launched its most ambitious small-drone initiative ever: a $1.1 billion program to field more than 300,000 one-way attack drones by 2028, with the first 30,000 expected by mid-2026.

Updated May 26