Drones Are Key to Winning Wars Now. The U.S. Makes Hardly Any.
The U.S. military is urgently trying to modernize its drone warfare capabilities through exercises like a recent one in Alaska, where American-made drone prototypes were tested—but often failed—against electronic countermeasures. Despite growing threats and widespread drone use by countries like Russia, China, and Ukraine, the U.S. lags in producing affordable, combat-ready drones and in training soldiers to use and defend against them. Bureaucratic red tape, outdated procurement processes, and reliance on foreign components—especially from China’s dominant drone maker DJI—have left the U.S. vulnerable. Efforts are underway to boost domestic production, supported by new policies, funding from Silicon Valley investors, and executive action. However, the testing highlighted steep technical and logistical challenges, with even promising U.S. companies like Neros still far from scaling production to meet military demand.