By: Dawn Zoldi
The War Department has formally launched Phase I of its Drone Dominance effort with an invitation to 25 vendors to compete for slots in a new program aimed at rapidly fielding large numbers of small military drones across the force under President Donald Trump. The announcement marks the first concrete acquisition move under the Pentagon’s “Unleashing U.S. Military Drone Dominance” directive issued in July 2025.
Phase I Competition Framework
According to the War Department release, the 25 invited vendors will compete in Phase I of the Drone Dominance program, a down‑select round designed to identify systems that can be produced at scale and deployed quickly to U.S. warfighters. The department explains that this initial phase will focus on evaluating each vendor’s ability to meet performance, survivability and affordability objectives aligned with the new drone dominance strategy.
The release notes that Phase I is structured to move faster than traditional acquisition efforts, reflecting senior leadership’s direction to strip out layers of bureaucracy and accelerate fielding. Vendors that succeed in this phase will be positioned for follow‑on phases that could involve larger production orders and broader operational deployment.
Link To July 2025 Drone Dominance Memo
The competition operationalizes guidance from the July 10, 2025 memo “Unleashing U.S. Military Drone Dominance,” in which the Secretary of Defense ordered the department to rebuild U.S. drone capability “to match threats to capabilities.” That memo framed drone dominance as a top priority, directing the services to expand access to lethal small drones and to better leverage the domestic industrial base.
Phase I of the vendor competition is one of the first visible mechanisms for translating that strategy into contracts and fielded systems. By tying vendor selection directly to the drone dominance guidance, the War Department is signaling that this is not a one‑off experiment but part of a larger, sustained push on uncrewed systems.
Implications For Drone And Defense Vendors
For industry, the Phase I invite list effectively defines the initial competitive field for Drone Dominance. The Phase I evaluation, known as the Gauntlet, will begin 18 February at Fort Benning, where military operators will fly and evaluate vendor systems in realistic operational scenarios. Companies selected for this round will gain early insight into the department’s preferred form factors, autonomy levels and cost points, shaping where private capital and technology roadmaps may flow next.
The Gauntlet will conclude in early March, at which point the War Department plans to place approximately $150 million in prototype delivery orders, with initial systems expected to begin delivering shortly thereafter and continuing over the following five months.
The War Department release underscores that this is a competitive opportunity, not a guaranteed production award. This means vendors will need to demonstrate both technical performance and manufacturability at scale. Those that do not advance beyond Phase I will still gain signal on requirements but will be on the outside looking in as follow‑on phases move toward procurement.
Phase I Vendor List
The War Department’s announcement specifies the 25 companies invited to compete in Phase I of the Drone Dominance program. As listed in the War Department release, they are:
ANNO.AI, INC.
ASCENT AEROSYSTEMS INC
AUTERION GOVERNMENT SOLUTIONS INC
DZYNE TECHNOLOGIES, LLC
EWING AEROSPACE LLC
FARAGE PRECISION, LLC
FIRESTORM LABS, INC.
GENERAL CHERRY CORP
GREENSIGHT INC.
GRIFFON AEROSPACE, INC.
HALO AERONAUTICS, LLC
KRATOS SRE, INC.
MODALAI, INC.
NAPATREE TECHNOLOGY LLC
NEROS, INC.
OKSI VENTURES, INC.
PALADIN DEFENSE SERVICES LLC
PERFORMANCE DRONE WORKS LLC
RESPONSIBLY LTD
SWARM DEFENSE TECHNOLOGIES, LLC
TEAL DRONES INC
UKRAINIAN DEFENSE DRONES TECH CORP
VECTOR DEFENSE, INC
W S DARLEY & CO
XTEND REALITY INC.