Pentagon officials emphasized that most of the money will be spent procuring drones and autonomous warfare technologies that already exist, and this is largely separate from additional funding that would increase U.S. domestic manufacturing capacity to build such weapons systems. “That $70 billion is going into existing systems and technologies,” Hurst said. “The industrial base support is completely different.”
The rapidly changing pace of drone warfare
The U.S. military already has a long history of developing and deploying drones during the Global War on Terror campaign, including the MQ-1B Predator and MQ-9 Reaper drones, which have performed surveillance and strike missions while operating at medium or high altitudes. But recent conflicts, particularly the Russo-Ukrainian war, have shown how small quadcopter-style drones and long-range, one-way attack drones that act like missiles can reshape the modern battlefield and force opposing sides to quickly adapt to new innovations and strategies.
Another sign of the times comes from how large numbers of cheap, Iranian-made Shaheed drones have proven effective in attacking cities and energy infrastructure in Ukraine and the Middle East. Such drones cost at least $20,000 to build and can overwhelm air defense systems — even prompting the U.S. military to recently adopt its own version reverse-engineered from the original Iranian design.
The ongoing US-China rivalry has seen the militaries of both countries racing to develop new ways to use AI-enabled, autonomous drone swarms and other untested technologies to prepare for a potential conflict in the Pacific.
“The evolution that we’ve seen on the battlefield is the evolution of technologies over a time frame of weeks, not the typical years that we see with our defense production,” Lt. Gen. Steven Whitney, director of force structure, resources and assessment for the Pentagon’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during a Pentagon press briefing. “So it’s really important that we work with industry to bring that potential to the fore.”
Whether the US military will increase its drone and autonomous warfare spending to this extent in the upcoming fiscal year depends on US lawmakers, who must first approve the Pentagon budget. According to Reuters, the proposed $1.5 trillion budget for the US military would represent the largest year-over-year increase in defense spending since World War II.
<a href