The U.S. Department of War plans to spend over $1 billion over the next year and a half under the Drone Dominance program, which provides for the total purchase of over 200,000 drones of various types. The program is focused on providing the American military with truly affordable unmanned aerial vehicles.
For example, taking strike FPV drones, the project has currently reached a price of $5,000 per Group 1 drone (up to 9 kg) and plans to ultimately reduce it to less than $2,000. The U.S. acknowledges that Ukraine is a good example of how it has adapted commercial drones for attacks on russia, citing as an example Operation Pavutyna involving strikes on russian occupation forces' strategic aviation with conventional FPV drones.
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The best drones in the world in terms of combat capability and production scalability are in Ukraine, emphasized Drone Dominance program head Travis Metz, quoted by Air and Space Forces Magazine. He notes that one of the important points of this program is to convince some of the world's leading drone manufacturers to move production here so we can benefit our servicemembers.
The drone issue became relevant for the U.S. and other countries with combat operations in iran, where the need for interceptor drones arose. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy previously reported that a group of more than 200 Ukrainian specialists and experts in drone warfare was sent to the Middle East.
Ukraine also offered Americans and their allies in the region rapid deliveries of anti-aircraft drones to combat iranian Shaheds. However, U.S. President Donald Trump, in his typical manner, critically stated that Americans currently have the world’s best drones, know about them more than anyone, and that they don't need help in the direction of drone defense.
At the same time, it's worth mentioning that Ukrainian company Ukrainian Defense Drones (UDD) became one of 11 winning companies in one of the American competitions of the Drone Dominance project.
The company was selected to receive a contract, placing sixth among all winners with a score of 72.9 out of 100. It was also reported that British company Skycutter, which took first place, collaborated with Ukrainian manufacturer SkyFall, scoring 99.3 out of 100.
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