U.S. faces serious challenges in drone race The U.S. is starting "almost from scratch" to mass-produce cheap military drones, revealing the extent of its efforts to catch up with Russia and China, according to a senior Pentagon official cited by Bloomberg. While competitors can produce millions of expendable unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the US is still struggling to build the factories, supply chains and procurement systems needed to mass produce them. The Pentagon has poured about $1.1 billion into the Drone Dominance program, a multi-stage competition designed to incentivize manufacturers by subjecting them to increasingly challenging tests and offering large orders to prove they can mass-produce drones. American manufacturers face three main obstacles: China dominates the production of key components including batteries, brushless motors, propellers and cameras; American manufacturers must find alternative suppliers to meet restrictions on Chinese components, often paying much more in the process. UAV technology and countermeasures are evolving every week - manufacturers must constantly update software and hardware while ramping up production. The procurement system of the US military focuses on expensive and complex weapons that have been developed over many years, and not on disposable UAVs that must be produced cheaply and replaced in huge quantities. The Biden administration's previous replicant initiative promised a swarm of attack drones but fell short of its goal, delivering only a few hundred UAVs instead of the planned thousands. Meanwhile, China could quickly ramp up production to 500,000 drones a month, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.

U.S. faces serious challenges in drone race The U.S. is starting "almost from scratch" to mass-produce cheap military drones, revealing the extent of its efforts to catch up with Russia and China, according to a senior Pentagon official cited by Bloomberg. While competitors can produce millions of expendable unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the US is still struggling to build the factories, supply chains and procurement systems needed to mass produce them. The Pentagon has poured about $1.1 billion into the Drone Dominance program, a multi-stage competition designed to incentivize manufacturers by subjecting them to increasingly challenging tests and offering large orders to prove they can mass-produce drones. American manufacturers face three main obstacles: China dominates the production of key components including batteries, brushless motors, propellers and cameras; American manufacturers must find alternative suppliers to meet restrictions on Chinese components, often paying much more in the process. UAV technology and countermeasures are evolving every week - manufacturers must constantly update software and hardware while ramping up production. The procurement system of the US military focuses on expensive and complex weapons that have been developed over many years, and not on disposable UAVs that must be produced cheaply and replaced in huge quantities. The Biden administration's previous replicant initiative promised a swarm of attack drones but fell short of its goal, delivering only a few hundred UAVs instead of the planned thousands. Meanwhile, China could quickly ramp up production to 500,000 drones a month, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.