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US Army Seeks Suppliers for up to 10,000 Low-Cost Drones per Month

Wednesday, July 9th, 2025

Last week, Army Contracting Command, on behalf of Program Executive Office (PEO), Aviation, released a Sources Sought notice entitled, “Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS) for the United States Army.” It complements an earlier RFI which was issued in April for Purpose Built Attritable Systems (PBAS).

This is great news. While the acquisition system has been slow to adapt to this requirement, Brigade and Division commanders are creating the capability out of hide, using Soldiers who have off-duty experience with drones, paired with 3D printing. Unfortunately, none of it is effectively resourced in manpower, training, or O&M funding. An acquisition of this magnitude will get the Army on its way to learning how to use this capability and incorporate it across the entire formation. Soldiers will adapt quickly and soon be able to employ FPV drones along with other systems to enhance ISR, precision targeting, EW, and low-cost mass effects via swarms.

This new Sources Sought focuses more on cost without the constraints of performance, payloads, and other requirements in the previous announcement. The goal of this Sources Sought is to deliver low-cost UAS solutions into Army formations rapidly and reduce “gold plating.” The Army understands UAS production capacity must expand across the industrial base.

As I mentioned when the PBAS RFI was released, I refer to attritable drones as the “155 shell of the future.” The reason I use that comparison is that a 155mm shell is about $3000. The Army is looking to pay up to $2000 for each of the proposed PBAS but I think that’s a bit low. The availability of these systems, built with US sourced parts (or reliable allied country), is a national imperative.

From the Sources Sought Notice:

“The Army requires low-cost unmanned aerial systems for immediate fielding with up to 10,000 air vehicles within 12 months. The ability to deliver systems at or below our threshold cost is the primary weighted measure. The system performance characteristics will distinguish systems meeting this core requirement. The production capability as well as the ability for Soldiers to modify and repair are additional distinguishing characteristics. The intent for modifications is to ensure Soldiers are able to add simple payloads (such as 30mm mortars, grenades, or other lethal payloads) and non-lethal capabilities based on mission needs without vendor involvement in the field. These systems may also be utilized as targets during Counter Unmanned Aircraft Systems (C-UAS) training and other training exercises. Likewise, Soldier repair is needed to allow units to fully understand their equipment and stay in the fight while waiting for additional systems / spare components.”

The number of 10,000 per month is also significant as it is the low end of the number of attritable drones Ukraine claims it expends each month in operations against Russia. This number can surge to 30,000 per month or even higher. The question is, how can the US Army consume that many drones per month during peacetime? Well, for one, 10,000 is the surge capacity and they don’t pan to get there immediately, although I think the requirement will be far beyond just 10,000 per month of we end up in Large Scale Combat Operations. While FPV drones aren’t as capable as exquisite precision guided systems, they are a fraction of the cost and can be produced in a fraction of the time. Ukraine enjoys federated production of drones in workshops and cellars as much as in factories and produces hundreds each night. Second, the Army will use these drones for Counter Unmanned Aerial System training. So far, there hasn’t been much opportunity to go after live systems. This is an opportunity for the Army (and others in DoD) to conduct some simultaneous live training for both offensive and defensive UAS capabilities.

Accessing to the request, potential vendors of PBAS must be able to deliver the following:

Unit cost for air vehicle less than $2,000.00.

Additional dependent equipment to include ground control station/controller, communications equipment, goggles, batteries, and charging station for one to many controllers to UAS. Cost for these items will be fairly considered during response evaluation.

Production capability to deliver an initial quantity of systems by 30 September 2025 with the ability to quickly ramp production and deliver larger quantities up to 10,000 air vehicles within 12 months.

The ability for our Soldiers to modify, within reason, the system with a variety of third-party payloads, armaments, and munitions without vendor involvement

The ability for our Soldiers to repair the system without vendor involvement

Furthermore, systems must be 2020 NDAA Sec 848, 2023 NDAA Sec 817 and American Security Drone Act of 2023 (2024 NDAA, PL 118-31, DIV A, Title XVIII, Subtitle B, SEC. 1821) compliant or demonstrate a path to compliance.

Most important about this action? Funding is available to achieve this capacity expansion. Lack of capital has held many manufacturers back.

The Army is seeking white papers which are due by 1600 hours CST 18 July 2025.

Visit for sam.gov full details.

I am concerned that there still isn’t a PBAS Interface Control Document which would help both DoD and industry create Modular Open System Architecture drones which become plug and play for the integration of end effectors, comms, guidance, and motors. This would alleviate the concern over which components will work with which drones as everything would work together. Executing this scale of acquisition before establishing these standards is putting the cart before the horse.

Despite my concern, I am very excited about this action and look forward to the Army executing and obtaining an attritable FPV drone capability at the smallest units and all across the formation.

–Eric Graves

Founder

SSD

Posted in Army, Contracts, UAS | 3 Comments »

Army Scales Down Military Working Equid Program for Warfighting Priorities

Wednesday, July 9th, 2025

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Army is streamlining its Military Working Equid program to align more resources with warfighting capability and readiness. MWEs include horses, mules, and donkeys owned by the Department of Defense and housed on Army installations.

Starting in July 2025, the Army will sunset ownership, operation and materiel support of MWE programs at Fort Irwin, California; Fort Huachuca, Arizona; Fort Riley, Kansas; Fort Sill, Oklahoma; and Fort Hood, Texas. However, MWE programs will continue with The Old Guard caisson units at the Military District of Washington and Joint Base San Antonio, Texas.

Concentrating the MWE program with The Old Guard will allow the Army to achieve significant cost savings while retaining the program for national ceremonial duties.

The Army is committed to ensuring a smooth transfer to appropriate owners and will continue to maintain the highest standards of care for the MWEs that remain in its formations. This initiative will save the Army $2 million annually and will allow the funds and Soldiers dedicated to MWE programs to be redirected to readiness and warfighting priorities.

Installation commanders will have one year to transfer, facilitate adoption, or donate the MWEs to vetted owners according to federal law. The Army Surgeon General’s MWE Task Force, comprised of equine veterinarian experts, will provide oversight to ensure the MWEs go to appropriate owners.

By Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Manpower & Reserve Affairs)

Posted in Army, Guest Post | 8 Comments »

Army Updates Facial Hair Policy to Reinforce Grooming Standards

Tuesday, July 8th, 2025

The U.S. Army is updating its facial hair grooming policy in an Army Directive that resulted from a force-wide review of military standards. The update reinforces the Army’s long-standing policy that all Soldiers must be clean-shaven when in uniform or civilian clothes while on duty, with temporary exemptions for medical reasons and permanent exemptions for religious accommodations.

The new policy requires exemptions for non-religious reasons to be supported by a temporary medical profile (DA Form 3349-SG) and an exception-to-policy (ETP) memo granted by an O-5 officer in the chain of command. The change, which will be effective the day the directive is signed, will ensure that leaders are actively involved in the process.

Soldiers requiring exceptions must also maintain presentable copies of their required documents when in uniform or civilian clothes while on duty. Similarly, religious exemptions will require religious accommodation documentation.

“This update reinforces our culture that fosters discipline – and discipline equals readiness,” said Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael R. Weimer. “Through a phased implementation we are working with providers through commanders to effectively address grooming standards to ensure we maintain a professional force.”

The directive also provides guidance on pseudo-folliculitis barbae or PFB, which is commonly known as razor bumps. It emphasizes the roles of healthcare providers and commanders in motivating and supporting Soldiers with PFB to manage their condition and to adhere to grooming standards within a reasonable timeframe.

Army healthcare providers, commanders, and leaders will assist Soldiers by providing education and treatment plans while monitoring Soldiers’ progress toward adhering to the grooming standards. Soldiers who cannot comply with grooming standards within a reasonable time may be administratively separated.

This policy update underlines the Army’s commitment to maintaining both warfighting readiness and a uniform, disciplined force. We will ensure our Soldiers have the resources and support they need to meet Army standards.

By U.S. Army Public Affairs

Posted in Army, Press Release, Profession of Arms | 2 Comments »

Army Researchers Speed Up Delivery of Electromagnetic Warfare Capabilities

Tuesday, July 8th, 2025

ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. (July 7, 2025) — To accelerate the pace of deploying electromagnetic warfare techniques to Soldiers, Army researchers are developing new methods to deliver capabilities with greater speed and flexibility.

The Army Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C5ISR) Center’s DynamIQ Electromagnetic Attack program improves how EW tools move rapidly across the battlefield to match the operational pace required in today’s warfare.

The Center’s research supports the Army’s EW Arsenal — demonstrated this year at Project Convergence Capstone 5 and Cyber Quest 2025 — that enables Soldiers to view a repository of available EW techniques, systems and targets. Given the mission objective and threats, users can understand their tools and quickly engage the adversary.

The key to C5ISR Center’s DynamIQ EA program is the ability to take validated EW techniques from the lab or from existing systems and transport them quickly to additional hardware platforms in a matter of hours, with no additional development time, according to a branch chief Shane Snyder. The Army saves time, money and resources by advancing from legacy EW systems to portable solutions.

“The Army is building a flexible foundation for evolving threats by creating a modular mission payload,” Snyder said. “Developing EW techniques in a modular fashion creates platform independence. Soldiers now have the freedom to choose which tools they need for a mission.”

The C5ISR Center has a long history of science and technology investments in Army EW systems, Snyder said. Multiple C5ISR Center R&D teams continue to invest in both offensive and force protection EW systems to ensure the Army can protect Soldiers from EW threats while impacting the threat decision cycles through offensive EW techniques.

C5ISR Center scientists and engineers working with Soldiers, specifically the 11th Cyber Battalionsince its activation in 2019, during field testing and experimentation events has provided valuable operational input, said Yaakov Gorlin, a C5ISR Center EW subject matter expert.

Testing events like Project Convergence and Cyber Quest provide the C5ISR Center with venues to test out both emerging concepts and maturing technologies, while getting direct operational feedback through their employment by the Soldiers. The C5ISR Center values these types of events as it allows the engineers and scientists to get first-hand insight into the capabilities being developed by the Center and provide the Soldier with relevant technology faster.

“Soldiers giving us direct feedback and talking about implementation during the development phase enables the Army to move faster,” Gorlin said. “Researchers need to understand what their work in the lab means from an operational perspective. These interactions with Soldiers help C5ISR Center achieve goals of improving ease of use and decreasing the cognitive burden. Software capabilities are tailored to the user.”

By Dan Lafontaine, C5ISR Center Public Affairs

Posted in Army, EW, Guest Post | Comments Off on Army Researchers Speed Up Delivery of Electromagnetic Warfare Capabilities

Commentary on a Concept to Create US Cyber Force

Sunday, July 6th, 2025

This is where I provide some commentary on commentary and originally appeared in Soldier Systems Digest, Vol 5, Issue 26.

The Pentagon knows its cyber force model is broken. Here’s how to fix it

The authors of this article revive the argument for establishing a US Cyber Force. I agree, except that the designation of Cyberspace as the fifth warfighting domain was myopic in the first place and establishing a “Cyber” force only gets part of the job done.

The reality is that Cyber is SIGINT by other means and that SIGINT is one of many elements of electromagnetic warfare. The EM spectrum is the true fifth domain.

To solve our current shortfalls, we must look to the past to face the future.

First, establish the US Security Service (USSS) as the sixth military service with specialization in offensive Cyber, Electromagnetic Warfare, and SIGINT. This requires a fix to the Title 10 / Title 50 issues which caused this bifurcation of effort in the first place.

Second, reconstitute service level versions of the Security Service which were stood down and merged with other Intel organizations in the 70s and 80s. Like the USSS, these service elements will provide offensive Cyber, EW, and SIGINT capabilities to support their own service branch.

Third, merge the National Security Agency and US Cyber Command once again into a single entity with additional technical control over Electromagnetic Warfare and an understanding that this entity controls offensive actions in addition to collection. Once again, the tweaking of Title 10 / Title 50 issues is critical.

Fourth, leave cyber security to the services as they establish and manage their own networks.

The new US Security Service will provide the National Cyber Force as well as the lead on national level EMS collection efforts and EW policy and execution. It will also provide forces to support joint warfighting at the Strategic, Operational, and Tactical Levels. Finally, it will establish a SOF component to support properly USSOCOM with a full seat at the table.

Unfortunately, cyber has become a generic term used by operations personnel to describe the full gamut of EW activities. While CEMA has been used here in the US as well as in the UK, Cyber ElectroMagnetic Activites seems to have lost favor even though it better describes the capability. As EW elements are embedded in Army formations under the Transformation In Contact initiative, Army combat arms Soldiers and Leaders will begin to use the term EW to generically refer to what is, EW. Unfortunately, they won’t be getting everything. The Army’s concept of EW is a stripped down capability which provides elementary direction finding and jamming, which makes it a hammer when it could be a scalpel. Signals will be geolocated without ample characterization and either jammed or passed to fires for destruction. This will invariably lead to the denial of exploitable nodes or the destruction of deceptive emitters while the real ones escape notice.

The Army is actually exacerbating the issue. The Army is combining USAREUR’s 2nd Multi-Domain Task Force with the 56th Artillery Command referring to “cyber” and traditional fires and defensive and offensive fires. The Army got the CEMA element correct in the 2nd MDTF, combining Cyber, EW, and SI in one organization. The danger is placing all of that capability under a commander who only understands that targets get destroyed.

–Eric Graves
Founder
SSD

Posted in Army, CEMA, Cyber, EW | 10 Comments »

US Army Releases TC 3-20.31-040 Direct Fire Kill Chain

Sunday, July 6th, 2025

The recently released TC 3-20.31-040 Direct Fire Kill Chain provides the standardized direct fire kill chain for crews, teams, squads, and small units. It provides coordinating principles for the actions of these entities that serve to establish cohesion through a common, standardized engagement process. The concepts in this training circular apply to all direct fire weapons, weapon systems, and small units in the armored brigade combat team, Stryker brigade combat team, and Infantry brigade combat team. This training circular is intended for all Army personnel, commanders, and staffs for use at Soldier through brigade combat team levels.

The purpose of the direct fire kill chain is to provide a standard description of all the tasks and actions of the firers, teams, squads, crews, and platoons employing direct fire weapon systems. This allows Soldiers and leaders to maximize the effects of lethal fires against any threat while simultaneously reducing or eliminating fratricide and collateral damage.

The direct fire kill chain is a deliberate, ongoing series of interconnected tasks, actions, and functions that enable the rapid and effective application of the appropriate combat power on a confirmed threat to achieve the desired tactical effects on the target.

Get your copy at armypubs.army.mil/epubs/DR_pubs/DR_a/ARN44092-TC_3-20.31-040-000-WEB-1.

Posted in Army, Profession of Arms | Comments Off on US Army Releases TC 3-20.31-040 Direct Fire Kill Chain

250 Years of Army Uniforms with Beetle Bailey

Sunday, July 6th, 2025

Who better to showcase 250 years of Army uniforms than the iconic Beetle Bailey?

Since 1950, Beetle Bailey has brought laughs to generations of Soldiers and civilians alike. Take a look back at how this iconic character has evolved over the decades.

Courtesy of US Army

Posted in Army, History | 3 Comments »

2025 Bull Simons Awardee – Bucky Burrus

Saturday, July 5th, 2025

I wish this feature the from USSOCOM were longer, but it offers some great insight into an SF legend, LTC Bucky Burrus, a founding member of the Army SMU and a very well deserved recipient of the 2025 Bull Simon Award.

Posted in Army, History, SOF | Comments Off on 2025 Bull Simons Awardee – Bucky Burrus