Bloomberg published on 31 October a feature examining US capacity to build cheap military drones, based on visits to factories in Utah. Travis Metz, acting director of the Defense Innovation Unit, said the United States is "starting from basically zero"; under the Drone Dominance programme, which aims at roughly 250,000 drones by the end of 2027, only three of the eleven companies awarded US$150 million in March for 30,000 drones had delivered in full by mid-September. With Russia expected to build 7.3 million small drones this year and Ukraine 10 million, the gap in production scale is now expressed in concrete numbers.
Gauntlet I deliveries and who picked up the slack
The first round, Gauntlet I, covered 30,000 one-way attack drones at an average of about US$5,000 each, and Neros took over 800 drones that others failed to deliver. The programme has about US$1.1 billion committed; the Army's drone marketplace has handled more than US$850 million (Col. Danielle Medaglia) and bought 450 drones from 21 vendors, figures Bloomberg itself does not reconcile.
Teal Drones builds 1,000 Black Widow and 2,000 Fang drones a month, Performance Drone Works holds US$820 million in Defense Department loans towards one million critical components a year by the end of 2028, and the Army aims for 50,000 domestically made brushless motors by the end of FY2027.
Replicator's promise and the new target
Replicator, launched in August 2023, promised "multiple thousands" of drones within 24 months and is said to have delivered several hundred. The new programme raises the target by an order of magnitude, but what the article documents is the gap between contracts, loans and targets on one side and deliveries on the other; combat effect cannot be read from it. The next budget request includes about US$55 billion for autonomous warfare and US$17 billion for uncrewed systems (Bloomberg Intelligence tally), and more than US$60 billion in private capital has flowed into 220-plus US companies since the start of 2025.
Component localisation and disputed claims of zero China dependence
For comparison, China is assessed to be able to surge to 500,000 drones a month (Bloomberg Intelligence, February) and Ukrainian intelligence estimates Russia's small-drone output at 7.3 million a year. Skydio chief executive Adam Bry warns that claims of zero dependence on Chinese components are likely overstated, so domestic supply of motors, batteries and radio parts, together with autonomous navigation that works under electronic warfare, remain preconditions for mass production.
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- 1
US Starts at 'Basically Zero' in Building Cheap Military Drones
Bloomberg · External site - 2
Pentagon 'basically zero' on cheap drones as Russia builds 7 million
Source checked 1 Nov 2026
DroneXL · External site
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AI & Security Observatory（2026-10-31）「米DIU暫定責任者、安価な無人機の量産は「基本的にゼロから」 第1回3万機の全量納入は11社中3社」『AI & Security Observatory』、第1.0版、最終更新2026-11-01。https://ai-security-observatory.org/ja/brief/brief-20261101-04/
AI & Security Observatory (2026-10-31). DIU's acting director says the US starts "basically from zero" on cheap drones as only three of eleven Gauntlet I vendors delivered in full . AI & Security Observatory, version 1.0. Updated 2026-11-01. https://ai-security-observatory.org/en/brief/brief-20261101-04/
Version 1.0 · Publication date 31 Oct 2026 · Updated 1 Nov 2026
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