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- The first phase of the Pentagon's small, one-way attack drone program involves 25 vendors.
- The companies will test their systems with US personnel later this month before DoD decides which ones to buy.
- Ukrainian companies were among those selected to compete in the Gauntlet evaluation.
Over two dozen companies, including two from Ukraine, have been selected to build and test their small one-way attack drone prototypes for the first phase of a new Pentagon program focused on drone dominance.
The evaluation, Gauntlet, begins later this month at Fort Benning in Georgia, where military personnel will fly the designs, putting them to the test to inform purchasing decisions. When the testing concludes in March, the department will put in roughly $150 million in prototype delivery orders.
The Pentagon aims to ultimately, by 2027, field hundreds of thousands of low-cost, one-way attack drones.
The Pentagon released the list of 25 companies involved on Tuesday. It includes a lot of start-ups like Performance Drone Works LLC, which was an offshoot of the Drone Racing League, as well as vendors like Kratos SRE Inc., a subsidiary of the larger Kratos Defense.
Two Ukrainian companies are also competing in the Gauntlet evaluations: Ukrainian Defense Drone Tech Corp and General Cherry Corp. Both are major developers with years of experience building and upgrading first-person view one-way attack drones for the Ukrainian military.
General Cherry Corp was established in Zaporizhzhia early on in Russia's war against Ukraine and has been developing small uncrewed aerial systems for its forces. Per the company, its first-person-view one-way attack drones are employed across 40 different brigades, and they regularly use soldier feedback to improve their systems.
Late last year, the company revealed its new AIR Pro interceptor drone designed to strike Russian reconnaissance and attack drones. The company said that the AIR Pro had been used on the front lines and demonstrated a speed of around 125 miles per hour.
On Facebook, General Cherry said its "participation in the American defense program is a recognition of our combat experience and shows a high level of trust in Ukrainian engineering solutions."
There's little to no information publicly available on the company the Pentagon identified as Ukrainian Defense Drone Tech Corp. Local Ukrainian media identified it as a Ukrainian manufacturer; however, reports said the name was unfamiliar.
All of the vendors will have their systems tested and evaluated by military drone operators at Fort Benning, Georgia, starting February 18 and leading into early March. Then, DoD will pick drones for prototyping, place delivery orders worth approximately $150 million, and receive the drones over the following five months.
The Defense Department publicly unveiled its Drone Dominance Program in early December, signaling a push to rapidly acquire large numbers of low-cost attack drones.
These systems — which have reshaped combat in Ukraine and are becoming an increasingly important part of US testing and operations — were singled out by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as critical because they provide a far cheaper alternative to high-end, expensive munitions.
Initial planning indicates the department intends to spend $1.1 billion on the program over four phases and regularly buy drones to offer a consistent demand signal to the US defense industry.
The beginning of the program follows announcements from President Donald Trump in June on supporting the American drone industry and arming troops and a memo from Hegseth in July.
"Drones are the biggest battlefield innovation in a generation, accounting for most of this year's casualties in Ukraine," Hegseth said in the July 2025 memo, adding that "US units are not outfitted with the lethal small drones the modern battlefield requires."
"We are buying what works," he said, "fast, at scale, and without bureaucratic delay."
The full list of defense companies participating in the DoD's Gauntlet competition are: Anno.ai Inc., Ascent Aerosystems Inc., Auterion Government Solutions Inc., Dzyne Technologies LLC, Ewing Aerospace LLC, Farage Precision LLC, Firestorm Labs Inc., General Cherry Corp., Greensight Inc., Griffon Aerospace Inc., Halo Aeronautics LLC, Kratos SRE Inc., ModalAI Inc., Napatree Technology LLC, Neros Inc., Nokturnal AI, Paladin Defense Services LLC, Performance Drone Works LLC, Responsibly Ltd., Swarm Defense Technologies LLC, Teal Drones Inc., Ukrainian Defense Drones Tech Corp., Vector Defense Inc., W.S. Darley & Co., and Xtend Reality Inc.
