- The Pentagon has advanced the Drone Dominance Program with Phase 2 operational testing
- Forty-nine companies were selected to compete in the second phase
- The program supports the rapid fielding of low-cost attack drones and attritable UAS
The Department of War has invited 49 companies to participate in the Drone Dominance Program’s Phase 2 Qualifier, the next operational testing event under the Pentagon’s effort to accelerate the acquisition and deployment of one-way attack drones and other attritable unmanned systems for combat missions.
According to an announcement posted Tuesday on the program’s website, 79 drones will head to Camp Grayling, Michigan, to prove their capabilities in long-range strike and close-quarters tactical assault.
The Phase 2 Qualifier follows the program’s initial Gauntlet evaluation phase launched earlier this year as part of the broader Drone Dominance initiative, which seeks to accelerate the acquisition and deployment of one-way attack drones and other attritable unmanned systems for military operators.
Unmanned systems will be at the heart of discussions across Potomac Officers Club’s 2026 Summer Service Series. Expect productive UAS and C-UAS dialog and takeaways at the 2026 Army Summit on June 18; the 2026 Air and Space Summit on July 30; and the 2026 Navy Summit on August 27.
Which Companies Were Selected for the Phase 2 Qualifier?
The companies invited to participate are:
- Adler Aerospace
- ADS + Lumenier
- AeroVironment
- Agilis Air
- Ascent Aerosystems
- Auterion Government Solutions
- Chase Defense Partners / Advanced Aircraft Company
- Chey-Tac
- Cyclops Defense
- DefendEye USA
- Envision Technology
- Ewing Aerospace
- Farage Precision
- Griffon Aerospace
- Grim Tech
- Halo Aeronautics
- Hyperscale
- Kratos
- LTMiltech USA
- Mithril Defense
- ModalAI
- Mountain Horse Solutions + AG3Labs
- Mountain Horse Solutions + Draganfly
- Neros
- ORQA US
- Perennial Autonomy
- Performance Drone Works
- Planned Systems International
- Powerus
- Rajant Corporation
- Renegade UxS
- Skycutter
- SOF Landing
- Stellarion
- Swarm Defense
- T3i
- Teal Drones
- Tesseract Ventures
- UAS Nexus
- Ukrainian Defense Drones Tech
- Vantor
- Vector
- Viter Systems
- Volatus Aerospace USA
- W.S. Darley & Co.
- WGS Systems
- Wilcox Cherry Defense
- XTEND Reality
- Zaruba
Several companies invited to the Phase 2 Qualifier also participated in the program’s first Gauntlet phase, including Ascent Aerosystems, Auterion Government Solutions, Ewing Aerospace, Farage Precision, Griffon Aerospace, Halo Aeronautics, ModalAI, Neros, Performance Drone Works, Teal Drones, Ukrainian Defense Drones Tech, W.S. Darley & Co. and XTEND Reality.
What Is the Drone Dominance Program?
The Drone Dominance program is a Pentagon acquisition initiative designed to accelerate the development, testing and fielding of affordable unmanned aircraft systems using streamlined procurement processes.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, a 2026 Wash100 Award winner, announced the program in December. The effort is sponsored by the Office of the Secretary of War and executed by the DIU, Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division and the Test Resource Management Center.
According to a request for information issued late last year, the Pentagon plans to issue up to $1 billion in fixed-price orders across four phases and acquire more than 200,000 drones by 2027.
How Is the Pentagon Expanding Drone Capabilities?
The Phase 2 Qualifier announcement comes shortly after the Pentagon selected Bravo Ordnance, Kela Defense, Kraken Kinetics, Mountain Horse and Northrop Grumman as winners of the Drone Dominance Lethality Prize Challenge.
The challenge focused on identifying scalable payload systems for Group 1 drones weighing 20 pounds or less and is intended to complement the broader Drone Dominance effort.
