Pentagon Plans to Spend Big on Increasing Drone Purchases

Reference News Network reported on October 18 According to the U.S. Defense News Weekly website on October 14, the U.S. Department of Defense wants to increase its inventory of autonomous weapon systems from thousands to millions.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin stated during a speech at the Association of the U.S. Army on the 14th that the Pentagon is requesting approximately $50 billion in budget coordination funds to expand the inventory of autonomous weapon systems and robotic systems.

This request is part of the Department of Defense's efforts to significantly enhance the inventory of autonomous weapon systems and robotic systems.

This funding is separate from the Pentagon's budget request for fiscal year 2027. The fiscal year 2027 budget request includes $53.6 billion for the "drone dominance" program. Within this budget request, $16.9 billion is allocated for unmanned system procurement, $14.4 billion for counter-unmanned systems, $13.5 billion for logistics support in contested environments, $4.5 billion for collaborative autonomous technologies, and $4.3 billion for systematized systems and personnel-related work.

Austin stated that this budget coordination funding is a one-time investment, rather than a regular annual appropriation, aimed at accelerating the development and production of autonomous weapon systems and robotic systems.

He said, "Ultimately, we aim to procure hundreds of thousands of one-way attack systems this year, and in the coming years, that number will reach millions, which is a pace the Department of Defense has never seen before."

Austin mentioned that the Pentagon must lower the barriers to entry for new companies to enter a defense market long dominated by established contractors and high-cost equipment platforms. (Translated by Hu Xue)