Overview
- The Phase I trials run Feb. 18 into early March at Fort Benning, where operators will evaluate systems before awarding about $150 million in prototype orders, followed by five months of deliveries.
- The field includes startups and nontraditional firms as well as larger contractors, with two Ukrainian makers — General Cherry and Ukrainian Defense Drone Tech Corp — invited.
- Entrants must use U.S.-made components, a supply-chain rule that has posed challenges for some companies working to onshore motors and batteries.
- Each vendor must bring at least 11 one-way drones and ten removable 2 kg inert payloads to the event, and receives a $25,000 participation award.
- The four-phase, $1.1 billion program seeks to field roughly 30,000 drones in 2026 and scale to hundreds of thousands by 2027 as unit prices fall toward about $2,300.