Washington, March 6 (NationPress) The Pentagon has informed US legislators that the landscape of modern conflict is being revolutionized by inexpensive, mass-produced drones. They emphasized that insights from the Ukraine battlefield and recent engagements with Iran make it crucial for the United States to swiftly develop a domestic drone manufacturing sector and equip troops with a substantial number of unmanned systems.

During a testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, senior officials from the Pentagon highlighted that small drones have emerged as a pivotal weapon in contemporary warfare, urging the US to hasten production while minimizing reliance on supply chains linked to China.

“Drones represent the most significant battlefield advancement in decades,” stated Owen West, a senior advisor for drone supremacy at the Pentagon.

West clarified that the department's initiative to enhance the American drone industrial base has three main goals: “Firstly, strengthen domestic manufacturing; secondly, equip our combat units and train them for modern warfare; and thirdly, propel a technological leap through reconciliation funding.”

He noted that the program is designed to ensure that US forces are “quickly equipped to engage in modern combat.”

Legislators from both parties concurred that the nature of warfare is evolving rapidly.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker mentioned that the conflict in Ukraine has “permanently altered the nature of contemporary warfare” and showcased the increasing significance of small unmanned systems for reconnaissance, targeting, and strike operations.

Wicker also cautioned that the US is lagging in the international drone market. He pointed out that China has leveraged “state subsidies in the tens of billions of dollars,” “predatory pricing strategies,” and control over crucial supply chains to secure “over 90 percent of the global nonmilitary small drone market.”

Consequently, American drones are now “anywhere from 5 to 25 times more expensive” than their Chinese counterparts, he added.

Ranking member Jack Reed emphasized that the scale of the shift on the battlefield is already evident.

“More than half of all battlefield casualties are now linked to UAS,” Reed noted, referring to unmanned aerial systems.

Travis Metz, program manager for the Pentagon’s drone dominance effort, informed the committee that the department has allocated “$1.1 billion over the next 18 months to acquire drone systems” as part of a strategy to increase production and lower costs.

“The drone dominance initiative is the catalyst for unleashing the American small drone industrial sector,” Metz remarked.

He explained that the program has two primary objectives: “First, enhance US supply chains for small drones to lower acquisition costs, and second, provide substantial quantities of these drones to military services.”

Metz revealed that the Pentagon recently conducted a 14-day drone competition at Fort Benning, where 25 vendors' systems were evaluated by military operators.

“The selected vendors will receive orders for a total of 30,000 small one-way attack drones to be dispatched to military units within the next five months,” he stated.

The department intends to repeat this process every six months, “increasing quantities, reducing prices, and assessing against more challenging mission tests.”

The program also aims to prioritize frontline troops in procurement decisions.

“We have eliminated bureaucratic obstacles,” Metz explained. “The warfighters, who are the end-users, will be the primary assessors.”

Major General Steven Marks, director of the Defence Autonomous Warfare Group, noted that autonomous systems are already altering combat strategies.

“The essence of warfare has fundamentally transformed,” Marks declared to the committee. “Autonomous systems are not merely emerging; they are an established reality on the battlefield.”

He stated that the group was created to align operational requirements with technological advancements by integrating engineers and military personnel to develop systems that are directly informed by battlefield needs.

However, senators raised concerns about whether the speed of US initiatives matched the urgency of the threat.

Senator Jeanne Shaheen remarked that Ukrainian forces are modifying drone designs “every two weeks due to warfare,” expressing that the US approach lacks sufficient urgency.

Senator Richard Blumenthal also questioned the scale of funding, cautioning that “$1 billion, or even $2 billion, seems entirely insufficient” given the rapid evolution of drone warfare.

Metz acknowledged that Ukraine is currently producing drones at a significantly larger scale.

He noted that Ukraine manufactured approximately 4.5 million drones last year and anticipates producing about 6 million this year, with many priced between $500 and a few thousand dollars each.

The Pentagon’s initial acquisitions under the program will cost around “$5,000 per drone,” although officials aim to decrease that cost to below $2,000 as production increases.

The conflict in Ukraine has underscored the growing influence of low-cost drones on modern battlefields, with small unmanned systems increasingly utilized for reconnaissance, targeting, and precise assaults.

Military strategists in Washington and allied nations are now examining how these affordable systems can transform tactics, overwhelm conventional defenses, and significantly impact the economics of warfare.