This Week in DOD: Department Unleashes Drone Development; USDA, DOD Partner on Security; U.S. Hosts Israel for Bilateral Talks
July 11, 2025 | By C. Todd Lopez, DOD News |
By eliminating unnecessary policies and bureaucracy, the Defense Department plans to put legions of small, inexpensive drones into the hands of warfighters who need them.
"In line with President [Donald J.] Trump's recent executive order to support the American drone industry, [Defense] Secretary [Pete] Hegseth signed a memo removing restrictive policies on drone innovation that hindered production and access to vital technologies," said Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell during the Weekly Sitrep video. "By leveraging our department's savings from [the Department of Government Efficiency], we will help power a technological leapfrog and bolster the U.S. drone industry by approving hundreds of made-in-America drone products for purchase by our military."
Outdoors in a field, a soldier in a camouflage uniform holds a small drone aircraft in his outstretched left arm.
According to Hegseth, the department's new focus on the use of drone technology involves three primary efforts.
First is to strengthen the U.S. drone manufacturing base.
"We will bolster the nascent U.S. drone manufacturing base by approving hundreds of American products for purchase by our military," Hegseth said. "Leveraging private capital flows that support this industry, our overt preference is to buy American."
A man in a business suit extends his right arm into the air to retrieve a folded piece of paper hanging beneath a small, hovering drone. In the rear is a large building and two service members in camouflage uniforms holding remote control devices.
Second is to get the best tools America has to offer into the hands of the service members who need them most.
"We will power a technological leapfrog, arming our combat units with a variety of low-cost drones made by America's world-leading engineers and [artificial intelligence] experts," Hegseth said.
https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/4241647/this-week-in-dod-department-unleashes-drone-development-usda-dod-partner-on-sec/
