U.S. Air Force Seeks 10 km Backpack FPV Strike Drones for Special Operations Missions.

The U.S. Air Force plans to field backpack-portable one-way attack drones for Air Force Special Operations Command’s Special Tactics Teams, launching a March 18, 2026, Request for Information for an electromagnetic-interference-resistant FPV strike system.

The requirement calls for a ground-launched VTOL drone with a 10 km range, 20 km objective reach, and 15 to 30 minutes of armed endurance, giving small teams a resilient, precision-strike capability in contested environments where jamming and electronic warfare would otherwise limit effectiveness.

Read also: U.S. National Guard Approves FPV Strike Drones for Soldier Training in Modern Drone Warfare.

U.S. Air Force Special Tactics teams want backpack-portable one-way attack drones to deliver low-signature precision strikes in denied environments. The FPV system would combine portability, EW resilience, and lethal effects against light vehicles, troop positions, and other time-sensitive targets (Picture source: U.S. DoW).

The notice is market research rather than a formal solicitation, but its requirements are already unusually specific. Industry responses are due by April 17, 2026, and the Air Force wants a ground-launched VTOL system with day and night configurations, a 10-kilometer threshold range with a 20-kilometer objective, and 15 to 30 minutes of endurance while carrying a warhead.

The desired weapon sits in the space between improvised commercial FPV strike drones and more formal loitering munitions. The Air Force is asking for NDAA-compliant systems that avoid Chinese supply constraints, integrate GPS, 4G/LTE/5G connectivity, true frequency hopping between bands, and an optional relay payload to push operational reach beyond 20 kilometers; it also wants two air vehicles and one ground control station to stay under 30 pounds at threshold, with a far more ambitious 10-pound objective.

That architecture defines the battlefield role. Special Tactics forces are built to operate in hostile, denied, and politically sensitive environments, where jamming, degraded communications, and short windows of opportunity are normal rather than exceptional. A drone that can hop bands, exploit cellular networks when available, and still retain GPS-denied capability offers a far more survivable tactical kill chain than hobby-grade FPV systems that collapse under electronic pressure.

The armament requirement is equally revealing. The RFI specifies a 1.5-kilogram threshold kinetic payload with a 3-kilogram objective, using fragmentation as the baseline warhead and a penetrator as the desired growth option, while also requiring an electronic safe-and-arms device and recoverability during training. In practical terms, that payload bracket is optimized for lethal effects against exposed troops, fighting positions, light vehicles, antennas, radar, and counter-drone nodes, command posts, and other soft to semi-hardened targets rather than main battle tanks.

The rest of the technical package shows the Air Force wants a networked tactical weapon, not a stand-alone expendable. The system must pass ownship data, full-motion video, sensor point of interest, routes, payload status, battery level, link quality, navigation status, and Cursor-on-Target messages into ATAK, with an objective for pre-impact battle damage imagery; command links must use AES-256 encryption, ideally through a FIPS-compliant module, and the system should also integrate through MANET, Silvus, and TW waveforms.

The VTOL requirement is especially important for how the U.S. Air Force special forces will actually use these drones. A vertical-lift one-way attack system can launch from a rooftop, tree line, riverbank, narrow trail, compound courtyard, or austere landing zone without rails, catapults, or runway access. For teams tasked with assessing and opening anything from major airfields to clandestine dirt strips, that means immediate strike coverage in the same confined spaces where access operations are hardest, and exposure is greatest.

Special Tactics Teams are the Air Force’s ground force within U.S. Special Operations Command and are built around global access, precision strike, and personnel recovery. Their operators already control landing zones, integrate fires, recover isolated personnel, and support joint special operations, but the Air Force’s own notice states that AFSOC and Special Tactics units currently lack a purpose-built FPV unmanned capability. This requirement is therefore less about adding a gadget than about filling a doctrinal gap in the team’s organic strike architecture.

These drones would give Special Tactics teams three immediate advantages. During global access missions, they could suppress observation posts, machine-gun nests, or light vehicles covering a landing zone or seized strip; during precision strike, they would allow low-signature engagement of fleeting targets beyond rifle and grenade-launcher range; and during personnel recovery, they could scout approach lanes, watch pickup zones and neutralize immediate threats before pararescue specialists or recovery elements expose themselves.

This is also why AFSOC needs the capability even though it already fields aircraft such as the AC-130J, MC-130J, and MQ-9 Reaper. Those platforms bring greater range, persistence, and firepower, but they do not always provide the fastest, cheapest, or least detectable answer for a small team moving on foot with limited signature and limited communications. A man-portable strike drone that can be launched in under three minutes, repaired in the field, and learned in as little as two to five hours compresses the sensor-to-shooter loop down to the operator level.

The acquisition logic points to a broader Pentagon shift toward low-cost mass, resilient supply chains and operator-owned drone tactics. The Air Force wants rechargeable batteries that can be topped up from AC power, vehicles, or portable military batteries; it wants field availability as high as 90 percent, and it wants vendors able to deliver two units within six months after order. That aligns closely with the trend discussed in U.S. Accelerates Low-Cost Attack Drone Program to Field Combat Systems by 2027 and U.S. Special Forces Green Berets Gain Tactical Drone Capability for Recon and Targeting.

If this effort matures into procurement, the real breakthrough will not simply be another loitering munition in U.S. service. It will be the creation of a standardized SOF-specific one-way attack ecosystem, complete with encryption, training, repairability, ATAK integration, and mission-tailored TTPs, that lets Air Force special operators carry expendable precision strike in the same packs they already use to open airfields, direct airpower, and recover isolated personnel. For readers following Army Recognition’s reporting on Switchblade 600 and the evolution of loitering munitions and the US Marine Corps to deploy three new types of loitering munitions into infantry battalions by early 2026, the significance is clear: tactical air-ground integration is now being pushed all the way down to the backpack level.