US wants 250,000 cheap drones by end of 2027, but production is far behind, Bloomberg reports

The US military wants about 250,000 cheap drones by the end of 2027. A new Bloomberg report says the country is starting close to zero. DroneXL summarised the report on 31 October 2026.

Travis Metz, acting head of the Defense Innovation Unit, said the US is "starting from basically zero" in mass-producing low-cost military drones. The plan is backed by about $1.1 billion for the Drone Dominance competition, which has four stages.

How the gap looks

Ukrainian intelligence expects Russia to build 7.3 million small, expendable drones this year. Ukraine says it will make 10 million. Bloomberg Intelligence says China can surge to 500,000 a month.

In the US, the first round of the competition, called Gauntlet I, gave 11 companies $150 million in March for 30,000 one-way attack drones. By mid-September, only three had delivered everything. The average price was about $5,000 a drone. A second round, Gauntlet II, covers 60,000 drones and had 10 winners in mid-September.

Who is building

Vector Defense in Utah makes a few hundred small quadcopters a month. Its chief executive, Andy Yakulis, calls them ammunition. Neros Technologies in California won 800 bonus drones that rivals failed to deliver, plus an Army contract worth up to $500 million.

Teal Drones, owned by Red Cat Holdings, builds 1,000 Black Widow and 2,000 Fang FPV drones a month. AeroVironment is aiming for 400 Switchblade drones a month from a new plant in Salt Lake City. Performance Drone Works in Alabama holds $820 million in Defense Department loans and wants to make 1 million key components a year by the end of 2028.

The Army also opened an online drone marketplace in March. More than $850 million has gone through it, according to the report.

Why it matters

Cheap drones need many small suppliers: motors, batteries, cameras, radios and software. The report says the Army wants 50,000 brushless motors by the end of fiscal 2027. Parts makers and service firms in the drone field may see steady demand if the targets hold. The funding still needs approval from Congress.

On The Flying Engineer

See drone companies and services in our directory. Two of the makers named above have pages: AeroVironment and Red Cat Holdings.

Source: DroneXL, citing a Bloomberg report.