U.S. Army targets one million expendable drones by 2028 citing Ukraine lessons and Chinese scale.

U.S. Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll said the service plans to buy at least one million uncrewed aerial systems within two to three years, with the capacity to add several hundred thousand annually after that. The shift treats drones as consumables and reflects lessons from Ukraine and the pace of Chinese production, with a push for domestic manufacturing and rapid fielding.

In an interview published by Reuters on November 7, 2025, Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll outlined an aggressive plan to acquire at least one million drones within the next two to three years, framing them as expendable munitions rather than boutique systems. Speaking amid ongoing doctrine and acquisition reforms, he said the service will distribute funding across multiple manufacturers to scale quickly and reduce reliance on Chinese supply chains, a theme Pentagon leaders have echoed while expanding attritable and autonomous programs. The Army currently buys on the order of tens of thousands of drones per year, so the new target represents a steep ramp that will demand industrial base investment and streamlined procurement.
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The operational template draws on the Ukrainian fronts, where micro-quadcopters, FPV platforms, and loitering munitions saturate the tactical space, provide intelligence, adjust fires, and strike armored vehicles at short range, while more enduring vectors hit the operational rear (Picture source: US DoD)

At the core of the plan, the Army intends to make uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) basic issue items, widely distributed to units, and accepted as subject to heavy attrition. Driscoll notes that the current purchasing flow is close to 50,000 airframes per year and needs to move toward twenty times that figure, while developing counter-UAS in parallel: dedicated munitions, net-projectiles, electromagnetic effects, and direct integration into weapon systems evaluated at Picatinny. Priority falls on the upstream industry, from brushless motors and sensors to batteries and circuit boards, to reduce dependence on supply chains dominated by China.

According to recent reporting, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is steering a revamp of acquisition procedures to accelerate and scale up purchases of small platforms, with initial volumes in the tens of thousands of systems and a focus on domestic production. This dynamic connects to the Replicator initiative, which aims to field low-cost autonomous swarms continuously while easing rules that slowed procurement. Congress is examining options for additional capacity in the United States, even as the Army favors a distributed, competitive model.

The operational template draws on the Ukrainian fronts, where micro-quadcopters, FPV platforms, and loitering munitions saturate the tactical space, provide intelligence, adjust fires, and strike armored vehicles at short range, while more enduring vectors hit the operational rear. Tempo is achieved through scale: the number of pilots, the availability of batteries, the replacement rate of airframes, and the frequency of software updates. The U.S. objective is explicit: absorb a high consumption rate without breaking the logistics chain, stabilizing training and resupply at the brigade level.

The shift is also visible in equipment choices. In the loitering munition family, the Switchblade 600 offers more than 40 minutes of endurance, an anti-armor warhead, and the ability to engage targets beyond line of sight at safe stand-off, with precise optics for intelligence support and target acquisition. These parameters suit missions against artillery pieces and vehicles in depth. Among multirotor drones, Performance Drone Works’ C100 claims up to 74 minutes of flight time with payload; industry material cites a maximum load of about 21.4 lb (roughly 9.7 kg) and a setup time under two minutes from a rucksack, fitting organic ISR at squad/company level. Finally, Anduril’s Ghost/Ghost-X line targets reconnaissance and force protection with a modular architecture, improved propulsion, and dual-battery options to increase endurance and payload capacity.

Mass UAS reshape the economics of contact. Within a combined-arms team, small quadcopters extend the sensing bubble and feed the Common Operating Picture (COP) in near real time via hardened command and control (C2) links. Loitering munitions prosecute artillery, armor, or command posts from covered positions, while light VTOL vectors provide urgent resupply, shot-lines for crossings, and movement of critical items. Counter-UAS layers combine acoustic, radio-frequency, and electro-optical detection with electromagnetic effects and net-projectiles close to likely approach axes. The result is a shorter intelligence-to-fires cycle, greater tolerance for losses, and the ability to sustain a high operational rhythm under EMCON (emissions control) constraints.

The industrial question remains decisive for the Defense Industrial and Technological Base (BITD). Driscoll advocates spreading funding across multiple manufacturers, including dual-use firms able to supply civil and military platforms, to anchor interoperability standards for ISR payloads and data links. If implemented, this approach builds productive redundancy, reduces exposure to Chinese imports, and supports the economies of scale the Army seeks. The roadmap favors depth in the supply chain: locally produced motors, sensors, batteries, and circuit boards to ensure surge capacity in a crisis.

The U.S. Army is moving toward agile purchasing, unit-level workshops that iterate quickly on airframes and payloads, and training pipelines that normalize UAS at the small-unit level. Expected benefits include a richer COP, tighter articulation with supporting fires, and durable maneuver under jamming. The test will be practical: maintaining sortie rates in bad weather, under radio-frequency denial, over time, with dispersion patterns imposed by threat conditions. Recent industrial and acquisition signals point directly to that ambition.

This course of action acknowledges an era in which low-cost autonomy, attrition, and industrial scale weigh as much as high-end platforms. If doctrine, the BITD, and procurement processes align, Washington narrows the mass-production gap with China and offers allies a common framework for interoperability on UAS, counter-UAS, and electromagnetic warfare. Otherwise, the U.S. force risks fielding islands of capability without depth for a long campaign. The next two years, and the one-million-drone milestone, will serve as a strategic reality check.

Written By Erwan Halna du Fretay - Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group

Erwan Halna du Fretay is a graduate of a Master’s degree in International Relations and has experience in the study of conflicts and global arms transfers. His research interests lie in security and strategic studies, particularly the dynamics of the defense industry, the evolution of military technologies, and the strategic transformation of armed forces.