US Army targets 1 million drones purchase to close drone warfare gap
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The US Army plans to buy 1 million drones, shifting its doctrine to massed, expendable unmanned systems while overhauling supply chains and industrial capacity.
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A United States Soldier assigned to 3rd Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Regiment, reaches for an unmanned aerial system during Project Flytrap at Joint Multinational Readiness Center, Hohenfels Training Area, Hohenfels, Germany, June 19, 2025. (US Army photo)
The United States Army “expects to purchase at least a million drones within the next two to three years,” US Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll told Reuters.
His remarks marked a dramatic announcement that signals a doctrinal shift away from treating unmanned systems as scarce, high-value platforms and toward viewing them as “expendable munitions.”
The plan, driven in large part by battlefield lessons from Ukraine, aims to seed the force with large numbers of small tactical UAS, loitering munitions, and other expendable systems while building a domestic industrial base capable of rapid, high-volume production.
Why the million-drone push?
The lessons from the war in Ukraine have rewritten the rules of modern warfare. Cheap, weaponized drones have repeatedly demonstrated the ability to deny space, degrade high-value platforms, and multiply targeting options at low cost.
Instead, the US Army is moving to normalize many drones as consumable ammunition; systems to be produced, distributed, and expended in large numbers rather than hoarded as rare assets. However, as Driscoll pointed out, the US is still lagging behind.
The Pentagon currently receives about 50,000 unmanned aerial systems (UAS) a year, a shortfall underscored by Driscoll, who said Russia and Ukraine each produce roughly 4 million annually, and China can produce about twice that.
🚨 China unveils ‘Radar Reaper’ swarm drone 🇨🇳
— Defence Index (@Defence_Index) October 28, 2025
The PLA’s new system can autonomously detect, track, and destroy enemy radars.
In wartime, production could reach 2 million units per month.
Thousands launched at once can blind air defenses in seconds. pic.twitter.com/v0uI9Pj8Xt
The million-unit target is intended to bulk up inventories and to kick off a robust supply chain, which would prove crucial in wartime.
Read more: How low-cost drones are exposing global powers' vulnerabilities
Practical and industrial hurdles
However, translating an aspirational figure into operational capability will be difficult, especially when it comes to the US military-industrial complex. Meeting the scale Driscoll describes requires ramped production of motors, batteries, circuit boards, and sensors, together with standardized, modular airframes that can be reconfigured for surveillance, strike, or electronic warfare roles.
Lawmakers had introduced legislation that would direct the Pentagon to create a facility in Texas to meet Driscoll's aims.
Meanwhile, the US Army's Secretary says that production will be spread across multiple commercial manufacturers rather than concentrated in a single facility, a goal that will require intense lobbying in Washington.
As Reuters points out, “Funding decisions often require buy-in from lawmakers, who are often hesitant to cut weapons programs benefiting their own districts.”
Storage and sustainment are further complications.
“No one should be thinking they can store millions of drones [or countermeasures], they can’t just store them in a warehouse, and even if they did, they shouldn’t expect them to be useful given how quickly things are evolving,” RAND analyst Scott Boston warns.
Batteries degrade, firmware becomes obsolete, and countermeasures and spectrum dynamics change rapidly in wars; without constant refresh cycles and clear doctrine for issuance and replacement, large stockpiles risk becoming a paper capability.
The work of Russian FPV drones against Ukrainian GUR special forces who deployed on the outskirts of Pokrovsk with a UH-60 Blackhawk in an attempt to regain control of key routes pic.twitter.com/cO06NBcTCZ
— VolgaLad (@cym27s) October 31, 2025
Lessons from Ukraine and implications for US forces
The conflict in Ukraine has combined industrial-scale production with rapid field innovation. Forces there and in Russia have paired factory output with widespread “maker” adaptations, commercial airframes retrofitted with strike kits, improvised sensors, and tactical hacks, creating a hybrid ecosystem of mass production and on-the-spot modification.
“The Ukrainian way is cheaper, faster, and being live-tested against an active adversary, as well as the insights from the electromagnetic spectrum are hugely relevant, since Russia is frequently adjusting and introducing new electronic-warfare techniques,” Boston said, as quoted by Defense News.
For the US, the operational lesson is twofold: buy volume, and build the doctrine, supply chains, and maintenance regimes that make volume usable.
Read more: Blackwater founder seeks to acquire Ukrainian drone companies: report
