Hegseth creates drone office to steer all systems

The Pentagon is consolidating nearly all of its drone and other unmanned program oversight under a new Direct Reporting Portfolio Manager for Unmanned Systems, giving leadership broad control over procurement, fielding, and priorities. The office will cover ev

On a government memo, the Pentagon has drawn a new line across its unmanned future—one designed to make drones move faster, scale wider, and be harder to derail by bureaucracy.

US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said the consolidation will place nearly all Pentagon drone programs under a single office. accelerating procurement and fielding as the second Trump administration pushes to prepare forces for drone warfare. The memo names the new structure: the Direct Reporting Portfolio Manager for Unmanned Systems.

Under the plan, the office—called DRPM-UxS—will be “the single joint integrator for all unmanned and autonomous system programs” across the US Department of Defense. The director of DRPM-UxS has not yet been named, but the role will report to Stephen Feinberg, US deputy secretary of defense.

With that authority, DRPM-UxS is set to cover a wide range of uncrewed systems across the services and domains. The oversight includes small unmanned systems, surface vessels or drone boats, and underwater vessels coordinated with DoD’s submarine office. It also extends to ground robots, autonomous and artificial intelligence systems, drone swarming technology, and counter-drone systems.

The office will also oversee drone marketplaces that some DoD offices have recently established. DRPM-UxS can decide what drones move forward. prioritize certain capabilities or contracts over others. and cease work on specific systems—power that could reshape what gets funded. what gets tested. and what ultimately reaches troops.

Only a handful of programs are described as exceptions. Major weapons programs that are already following a separate acquisitions process—such as the US Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft program—will remain with the services.

Even with the consolidation, two major efforts sit in the DRPM-UxS orbit. The office will be in charge of the US’ Joint Interagency Task Force 401. a military and federal government effort to counter small drones. DRPM-UxS will also oversee Defense Autonomous Warfare Group, DoD’s office for mass-producing autonomous drones across the military.

The new office is the latest milestone in a broader Pentagon push to integrate drone technologies across US military forces. Hegseth points to an “unprecedented $74 billion budget request for drones and counter-drone systems. ” along with massive investments aimed at acquiring. testing. and fielding small. cheap one-way attack drones.

In the memo, Hegseth ties the urgency to global production. “Adversaries collectively produce millions of unmanned systems each year across all domains,” he wrote. He added that while global unmanned systems production has increased over the last three years. the United States has been “slow to field these capabilities at scale.” He called drones and autonomous systems “the most consequential battlefield innovation of this generation.”.

Taken together. the memo’s central message is straightforward: if the US military is going to compete in a world where unmanned systems are being produced at industrial scale. it needs fewer handoffs and faster decisions. DRPM-UxS is designed to be that decision-maker—one integrator with broad reach. and a clear ability to move some projects ahead while ending others.

Pentagon Pete Hegseth drone warfare unmanned systems DRPM-UxS Stephen Feinberg Joint Interagency Task Force 401 Defense Autonomous Warfare Group one-way attack drones counter-drone systems drone marketplaces Collaborative Combat Aircraft