The Department of War has ordered a broad overhaul of counter-UAS approval processes, directing components to cut delays in cybersecurity, spectrum, safety and legal reviews that have allegedly slowed the fielding of drone-defense systems. The September 28th memo makes Joint Interagency Task Force (JIATF) 401 the department’s central synchronization point for accelerating employable counter-drone capability.
Counter-UAS Memo Targets Bureaucratic Delays
The directive from Department of War Secretary Pete Hegeseth argues that sequential, stovepiped approvals for connecting, transmitting, operating and training with counter-UAS technologies leave forces and installations exposed to fast-moving small-drone threats. It does not change operational-use rules, including homeland authorities under Title 10, Section 130i, and it says the department will not bypass legal or safety requirements. Instead, it directs officials to identify approval routes early, standardize them across the department, accept prudent risk and rapidly elevate stalled decisions.
The memo establishes several department-wide principles:
- Treat delay itself as a risk, particularly when commanders must weigh the danger of C-UAS employment against the consequences of inaction.
- Make reciprocity the default by using prior approvals, test results, mitigations and documentation for common systems, configurations and use cases.
- Use interim, conditional, limited-scope or time-bound approvals when testing supports manageable risk.
- Assign every approval barrier a named owner, timeline and escalation path.
- Require written, signed rationales for any denial of requested C-UAS employment, with submissions sent to JIATF-401.
If an approval authority does not act within 30 days, the requester must notify the Secretary of War’s front office.
New Timelines for C-UAS Approvals
The memo sets specific deadlines intended to turn approval cycles that can take months into processes measured in days or weeks for tested, validated systems.
| Barrier | Required action and timeline |
| Authority to Operate and Authority to Connect | The Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer, working with the department CIO, general counsel, DISA, U.S. Cyber Command, services and other officials, must establish a single department-wide C-UAS ATO/ATC process and name a lead entity within 30 days. |
| Re-review of approved systems | Within 10 days of initiating a re-review, the component must document the material or significant change that warrants it. Components cannot reassess a common system without documenting the risk that prevents reliance on an existing approval. |
| Spectrum certification and frequency assignment | The department CIO must review the component submission process for C-UAS spectrum requests and recommend ways to speed approvals within 30 days. The CIO will also support DIU’s Project Spectrum Strike to incorporate counter-UAS spectrum-management requirements. |
| Weapons safety reviews | Effective immediately, services cannot repeat a review for the same system, configuration and use case unless a material change creates a new risk. Review boards must meet often enough that administrative calendars do not delay employment. |
| Legal reviews | Reviews for C-UAS weapons or weapon systems that are not needed immediately for operations should finish within 10 days after receipt of necessary information. Components must share completed reviews within three business days of completion. |
JIATF-401 Takes Central Counter-UAS Role
The Department designated JIATF-401, part of the UxS Direct Reporting Portfolio Manager established in June 2026, as the central synchronizer for all C-UAS weapons-safety reviews in coordination with the UxS DRPM. The task force will maintain a repository of technical data, shared hazard assessments, approved mitigation measures and threat intelligence. Components must provide related documentation to the UxS DRPM within 30 days of a procurement action.
More broadly, JIATF-401 will coordinate with services, combatant commands, defense agencies, the Office of the Secretary of War and interagency partners to track enterprise barriers, identify duplicative reviews, surface unresolved issues and give senior leaders the information needed to intervene.
The memo also assigns JIATF-401 a role in legal-review information sharing. Components must route completed C-UAS legal reviews through the task force’s legal adviser to the Department of War Office of General Counsel, allowing authorized attorneys across the department to draw on existing analyses rather than repeat them.
Focus Shifts From Acquisition to Employment
The directive’s central message is that rapid procurement alone does not create a usable C-UAS capability. The department defines capability as hardware combined with trained personnel, appropriate policy, permissions and legal authority to safely employ it. It directs approval officials to rely on existing test data and other federal agencies’ operational experience where appropriate, including for domestic use cases.
The memo also distinguishes between systems that need full weapon reviews and technologies that do not. It says officials should not over-review nonweapon systems such as passive sensors, while still requiring legal review before a weapon system moves from experimentation or development to fielding.
For the counter-UAS market, the policy creates a more explicit path for reusing evidence, avoiding redundant safety and cyber reviews and pressing decisions upward when organizations fail to act. Its effectiveness will depend on whether components meet the 10- and 30-day milestones and whether JIATF-401 can enforce common standards across organizations that have historically maintained separate approval processes.