While the Pentagon has a new plan for “drone dominance,” you won’t find the effort concentrated in one part of the defense budget.
Instead, funding for unmanned aircraft and counter-drone systems is distributed across at least 214 separate program lines, according to a Real Time Defense analysis of fiscal years 2025 and 2026.
Real Time Defense, a new analytical tool that facilitates deep dives into Defense Department budgets and programs, was used to identify 96 drone-related procurement and research, development, test and evaluation budget lines in FY-25 across the services and major DOD offices.
That number climbs to 118 in the FY-26 request, with notable growth in funding tied to Army, Navy and Air Force drone experimentation. The Office of the Secretary of Defense and U.S. Special Operations Command round out the rest.
The broad distribution reflects the pots of money available to launch Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s July 10 directive 224638 to transform small drone fielding into a major Department-wide initiative. In the memo, “Unleashing U.S. Military Drone Dominance,” Hegseth ordered that every squad should be equipped with low-cost expendable drones, with priority going to U.S. Indo-Pacific forces, by the end of 2026.
To meet that goal, the memo sweeps away earlier restrictions and pushes authority down to commanders to procure, test and train with Group 1 and 2 uncrewed aircraft systems — including commercial and 3D-printed systems — if they use approved components. It also requires the services to classify small UAS as consumable commodities, not durable equipment, making it easier to buy and deploy them like munitions.
According to an analysis using Real Time Defense, the budget already reflects that shift. Of the 214 drone-related lines identified: 151 are in research, development, test and evaluation and 63 are in procurement accounts.
Each service has its own focus. The Army leads with 66 drone-related budget lines across the two years, followed closely by the Air Force with 58 and the Navy with 53. OSD accounts for 22 and SOCOM has 14. The spread shows that drone and counter-drone activity is now integrated across every corner of the force.
Real Time Defense was used to identify every budget justification document in FY-25 and FY-26 that mentions the terms: remotely piloted aircraft, attritable UAS, autonomous aerial aircraft, expendable UAS, Group 1, Group 2, loitering munition, one-way attack, sUAS (small unmanned aerial systems) and uncrewed aircraft.
These terms signal different categories of capability — from quadcopters and suicide drones to electronic warfare payloads and autonomous teaming and much more.
Hegseth’s policy changes also restructure how the department certifies and approves drone platforms. The memo tasks the Defense Contract Management Agency with maintaining a new, AI-searchable “Blue List” of drones and components that meet statutory compliance standards.
That list, previously managed by the Defense Innovation Unit, is being turned into a dynamic certification system that logs performance data, user ratings and real-time eligibility.
Originally published Inside Defense
