DRPM-UxS: Pentagon Sends 25,000 Drone Systems to CENTCOM
The Pentagon’s drone office says it sent 1,300 attack drones, 100 sea drones and 24,000 counter-drone systems to CENTCOM this year for $782 million.
The Pentagon’s new drone office says it has pushed more than 25,000 unmanned and counter-drone systems into the Middle East this year. In a release on 4 November, the Department of War said the Direct Reporting Portfolio Manager for Unmanned Systems (DRPM-UxS) fielded the systems to U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) for about $782 million.
The department’s breakdown, which has not been independently verified, is:
- More than 1,300 one-way attack drones, described as providing “precision deep-strike mass”;
- More than 100 unmanned surface and underwater vessels for maritime reconnaissance and strike;
- More than 24,000 counter-drone systems, fielded through the office’s counter-drone unit, Joint Interagency Task Force 401 (JIATF-401).
“We are moving at the speed of modern combat to equip our forces with decisive, affordable mass,” said Owen West, whom the release identifies as chief executive of Project Agincourt and of DRPM-UxS. “The thousands of systems operating across CENTCOM this year are just the beginning.” The release did not name the manufacturers, give unit prices, or say how many of the systems have been used in combat.
What DRPM-UxS is
The office is new. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth created it in a memo dated 29 June and released 1 July, Defense One reported. The memo put nearly all of the Pentagon’s drone and counter-drone work for air, land and sea under a single director reporting to the deputy secretary, and “dual-hatted” the heads of JIATF-401 and the Defense Autonomous Warfare Group, the successor to the Replicator drone initiative, as elements of the new office.
According to an Inside Unmanned Systems analysis of the memo, DRPM-UxS is the milestone decision authority for Group 1 to 3 drones, unmanned surface and underwater vessels, ground robots, swarming software and counter-drone systems. It can direct service contracting, set joint technical standards and halt the fielding of systems it judges not ready. Larger programs stay outside its control, including the Navy’s Medium Unmanned Surface Vessel, the MQ-25 Stingray tanker, the MQ-4C Triton and the Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft. The same publication reported in August that no director had been named; the 4 November release is the first official document we have seen that ties West to the role.
The release calls the office the “operational foundation” for the Autonomous Warfare Command (AUTOWARCOM), a planned four-star functional combatant command scheduled to stand up by 1 October 2027.
The drones behind the numbers
The release does not say which attack drone makes up the 1,300, but the best-known U.S. one-way attack drone in the region is LUCAS, the Low-cost Unmanned Combat Attack System built by Arizona-based SpektreWorks and modeled on Iran’s Shahed-136. CENTCOM said in December 2025 that it had formed a LUCAS squadron under a new unit, Task Force Scorpion Strike, led by personnel from Special Operations Command Central, Stars and Stripes reported. Defense One reported that CENTCOM said the task force used one-way attack drones in combat for the first time during Operation Epic Fury against Iran in late February 2026; a LUCAS had been test-launched from the littoral combat ship USS Santa Barbara in the Persian Gulf on 16 December.
Aerospace America reported that LUCAS measures 2.4 by 3 meters, typically carries about 18 kilograms of explosives and can launch from runways, ground vehicles or ships, and that drone experts put its cost at about $35,000 each. For how this class of weapon works, see our explainer on loitering munitions.
On the sea side, the drone office and the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) opened a 120-day effort on 19 October to field armed uncrewed surface vessels that can shoot down drones with existing missiles such as Hellfire, JAGM, APKWS and Stinger, Naval News reported. The solicitation asks for at least 200 nautical miles of range, a 10-knot cruising speed and engagements beyond three nautical miles, with weapons use kept under human supervision. Operational testing is planned at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek, Virginia, in early 2027.
Key figures
| Item | Figure (source) |
|---|---|
| Total systems fielded to CENTCOM in 2026 | More than 25,000 (Department of War) |
| Spending this year | About $782 million (Department of War) |
| One-way attack drones | More than 1,300 (Department of War) |
| Surface and underwater drones | More than 100 (Department of War) |
| Counter-drone systems | More than 24,000, via JIATF-401 (Department of War) |
| Office created | Memo of 29 June 2026, released 1 July (Defense One) |
| LUCAS reported unit cost | About $35,000, expert estimate (Aerospace America) |
| FY2027 request, unmanned and counter-drone | About $74 billion, including $20.6 billion for counter-drone (Inside Unmanned Systems) |
| AUTOWARCOM stand-up | By 1 October 2027 (Department of War) |
Why it matters
Analysis, based on the sources cited in this article:
The ratio in the release is the headline. Counter-drone systems outnumber attack drones by roughly 18 to one, which suggests most of the money and effort in CENTCOM this year went to protecting U.S. forces from drones rather than flying them. That matches the problem Naval News describes at sea, where DIU’s own solicitation says the cost exchange against cheap threats is “heavily skewed in favor of the adversary,” and the base-defense work covered in our report on lasers and microwaves against drones.
The cost claim needs care. The department says these “low-cost, attritable systems” flip the “cost-exchange ratio firmly in favor of the United States.” The release offers no unit prices or engagement data to test that. Because it does not split the $782 million between attack drones, sea drones and defenses, an average cost per system cannot be worked out from it, and “counter-UAS system” can mean anything from a handheld jammer to a vehicle-mounted launcher.
The figure is also small next to what is coming. Inside Unmanned Systems reports that the fiscal 2027 request would roughly triple unmanned and counter-drone spending to about $74 billion. If Congress funds that, an office that spent $782 million in one theater this year would be steering budgets nearly a hundred times larger across the whole force.
What to watch: whether the department names the vendors and unit costs behind the 25,000 figure; awards from the counter-drone sea-drone sprint early next year; how the final FY2027 defense bills treat the drone request; and the steps toward AUTOWARCOM’s October 2027 stand-up.
Sources
- U.S. Department of War, DRPM-UxS Deliver Over 25,000 Autonomous and Counter-Unmanned Systems to CENTCOM AOR, 4 November 2026.
- Defense One, Under new management: the Pentagon’s autonomous systems get new oversight, 1 July 2026.
- Inside Unmanned Systems, The Pentagon’s New Drone Czar: How DRPM-UxS Pushes for Robotics Combatant Command, 28 August 2026.
- Naval News, Pentagon Launches 120-Day “Sprint” to Field Counter-UAS Armed USVs, 22 October 2026.
- Defense One, Shahed drone meets clone in US war on Iran, February 2026.
Additional sources
- Aerospace America, Use of LUCAS drones in Iran puts focus on affordable, fast-moving acquisition.
- Stars and Stripes, CENTCOM touts new squadron of one-way attack drones as part of Middle East task force, 3 December 2025.
Related coverage
- Autonomous Warfare Command: What Project Agincourt Sets in Motion
- Shahed-136 Drone: Range, Cost and How Iran’s Attack Drone Works
- Lasers vs. Drones: Pentagon Picks 4 Weapons to Guard US Bases
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- Shahed-136 Drone: Range, Cost and How Iran’s Attack Drone Works Oct 25, 2026
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