Hegseth orders military to equip every Army squad with small drones by 2026
“While global military drone production skyrocketed over the last three years, the previous administration deployed red tape,” Hegseth wrote. “US units are not outfitted with the lethal small drones the modern battlefield requires."
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday instructed the Pentagon to equip every Army squadron with small attack drones by the end of fiscal year 2026, marking his latest effort to improve U.S. military readiness.
The memo expands on President Donald Trump's executive order last month that focused more broadly on commercial drones, also referred to as "unmanned aircraft systems." The defense memo narrowed the order to the military.
Hegseth claimed that the current military is not adequately prepared to handle the modern battlefield when it comes to drone usage and criticized the Biden administration for not staying up to date, Breaking Defense reported.
“While global military drone production skyrocketed over the last three years, the previous administration deployed red tape,” Hegseth wrote. “US units are not outfitted with the lethal small drones the modern battlefield requires.
"The directives… support our industrial base, reform acquisition, and field new technology for the warfighter," he continued. "Lethality will not be hindered by self-imposed restrictions, especially when it comes to harnessing technologies we invented but were slow to pursue.”
Hegseth said he was rescinding multiple Biden administration defense policies that are hindering "production and limited access" to "vital technologies," and also directed Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine to revise the Joint Unmanned Aircraft Systems Minimum Training Standards.
The secretary said he also wants the military to have the ability to modify drones in the field as necessary by October 2026.
The order comes as other countries implement drones on the battlefield, including Israel, Iran, Russia and Ukraine. Israel in particular used drones as a part of its "Operation Rising Lion" against Iran last month.
The cost of using expendable drones with every Army squadron was not immediately clear.
Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.
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