Ukrainian drone manufacturers have been included in the list of suppliers that the United States has allowed into the first phase of the Drone Dominance Program, a program for accelerated one-way purchases of inexpensive strike drones.
Ukrainian drone manufacturers have been included in the list of suppliers that the United States has allowed into the first phase of the Drone Dominance Program, a program for accelerated one-way purchases of inexpensive strike drones.
According to Military, citing the US Department of War, 25 companies were invited to Phase I (Gauntlet). The list includes GENERAL CHERRY CORP (a well-known manufacturer in Ukraine under the brand name «General Chereshnya») and UKRAINIAN DEFENSE DRONES TECH CORP. The evaluation will take place at Fort Benning: military operators will fly on the suppliers' systems and compare them in practical scenarios.
The first phase of Gauntlet will start on February 18 and is expected to end in early March. After that, the US side plans to place an order for the supply of prototypes for about $150 million. Deliveries are expected to begin shortly after the announcement of the orders and continue over the next five months. The US Department of War emphasizes in a statement that «drone dominance» is not only a technological race, but also a process race: the agency wants to buy what works, quickly, at scale and without bureaucratic delays.
The publication separately notes that General Chereshnya has a wide range of FPV drones, including the AIR Pro and Bullet interceptors, as well as fiber-optic control solutions. There is less public information about UKRAINIAN DEFENSE DRONES TECH CORP, but the company will undergo the same field tests as other program participants.
The Drone Dominance Program is designed for four phases with a total financial signal of $1.1 billion. The US Department of War states that by 2027 they plan to deploy hundreds of thousands of disposable strike drones, ready for combat use, and each subsequent phase should reduce the price per unit and increase production volumes.
Previously, dev.ua wrote about how the American-Ukrainian analogue of the Russian «Shahed» Artemis ALM-20 has passed a full cycle of tests, confirmed high accuracy of guidance without relying on satellite navigation, and is moving to the scaling stage with the participation of the US Department of Defense and other partners.
