Assessment · Drones and counter-drone

Established suppliers hold most recorded defense drone contract obligations

Recorded drone and counter-drone obligations reached $4.3 billion in October 2025–June 2026. Entrants without department prime contracts in fiscal 2008–2014 hold 15% since October 2023.

October 8, 2026

The public prime-contract records we identified show $4.3 billion in net Department of War obligations for uncrewed and counter-drone systems from October 2025 through June 2026, excluding Foreign Military Sales. That is 30% more than in the same months a year earlier and 10% more than two years earlier. The research and procurement budget lines for these systems went from $5.8 billion in fiscal 2025 to $12.8 billion in fiscal 2026, as we reported.^1–2

The growing drone budget is reaching a familiar supplier base. Since October 2023, companies with no prime contract from the department in fiscal 2008 through 2014 have won 15% of the $15.8 billion obligated, and Anduril holds more than half of their share. General Atomics alone holds 21%.^{1, 3–4}

The budget more than doubled; contracts through June rose 30%

The department's plan puts $8.4 billion from Public Law 119-21, the July 2025 reconciliation law, into these lines in fiscal 2026. Without it, the fiscal 2026 lines were $4.4 billion, against $5.8 billion in fiscal 2025, which included supplemental funds. The law makes its money "available until September 30, 2029," so it doesn't have to reach contracts this year.^{2, 5}

Regular money takes time too. Procurement money stays available for three years and research money for two, so a year's budget reaches contracts over several years. The contract count includes sustainment and services and leaves out other transaction agreements.^6–7

July to September also matter. Those months added 40% of fiscal 2024's obligations and 35% of fiscal 2025's, and fiscal 2026's aren't fully in federal award data yet. A separate measure, contracts coded as unmanned aircraft, rose 30% over the same October-to-June months.^{1, 8}

Established companies hold most uncrewed money; Anduril leads counter-drone

General Atomics holds 28% of the $12.0 billion for uncrewed systems, led by Gray Eagle and MQ-9 Reaper support. Northrop Grumman (Triton and Global Hawk), AeroVironment (Switchblade) and Boeing (MQ-25) follow. New entrants hold 6.6%. The largest are Anduril, Skydio, whose drones the department buys mostly through distributors, and Redwire. Leave out General Atomics and new entrants' share rises only to 9%.^{1, 4, 9–11}

Counter-drone money is concentrated. Anduril holds 30% of the $3.8 billion, most of it through Special Operations Command orders. Anduril also holds a Marine Corps Systems Command contract with a maximum value of $642 million "to deliver, install, and sustain Installation-Counter small Unmanned Aircraft Systems". RTX holds 20%, mostly Coyote interceptors, including orders under a Coyote contract the Army announced at $5.04 billion, funded order by order. Napatree Technology, a new entrant, holds 7% through one Army contract for Bumblebee drones. The department describes the Bumblebee as "designed specifically for counter-unmanned aerial system missions".^{3, 6, 12–15}

Contract actions funded through foreign military sales are left out. They add $2.5 billion, $1.6 billion of it to General Atomics.¹

The Army announced $5.2 billion in commercial counter-drone contracts

Army Contracting Command at Detroit Arsenal announced 12 contracts for commercial counter-drone systems between July 1 and Sept. 29, 2026, totaling $5.2 billion. For each, "funding will be determined with each order." Ten were awarded on Sept. 28, each after 50 bids. Counter-drone obligations from October 2023 through June 2026 were $3.8 billion. The orders under these contracts are the money to watch.^{1, 16}

Some drone awards stay out of view

From October 2023 to October 2026, the department's daily contract announcements describe one drone other transaction agreement: $19.7 million to Overland AI for military unmanned ground vehicles, which isn't in USAspending. In June the Air Force selected Anduril for the production phase of the Collaborative Combat Aircraft program, Anduril said, without giving a value. We found that award in neither the announcements nor the contract records. If awards like these carry large values, newcomers hold more than the contract record shows.^{1, 17–18}

The next orders will test the larger drone budget

The full fiscal 2026 record, with July to September, will show whether contracts are catching up with the doubled budget. In counter-drone, orders under the commercial contracts will show which of the 12 holders turn a contract into sales.

The 15 companies with the most drone and counter-drone obligations

Department of War prime contract obligations, Oct. 1, 2023 to June 30, 2026, foreign military sales excluded. Source: USAspending.gov.

How we counted

Obligations are Department of War prime contract actions from Oct. 1, 2023 to June 30, 2026 in USAspending, net of de-obligations, excluding foreign military sales. An action counts when its award names an uncrewed aircraft, vessel, ground robot or loitering munition, or counter-drone work or systems. So do actions with the unmanned aircraft product code, unless they describe computer or network gear or sit under a computer-hardware contract. Orders under contracts set up for drones or counter-drone systems count, as do awards to companies that make only uncrewed systems, such as Insitu and Shield AI. Where the department's daily announcement describes an award its record doesn't, the announcement decides. Aerial targets and target control systems, construction, mixed manned and unmanned fleets, mixed air-defense programs and other transaction agreements are not counted. Distributor orders count for the maker whose product they name. BlueHalo, Arcturus UAV and Tomahawk Robotics count under AeroVironment; Area-I, Blue Force Technologies and Dive Technologies under Anduril; Edge Autonomy under Redwire; Teal Drones under Red Cat; and FLIR under Teledyne. Primes are the five companies with the most Department of War contract obligations in fiscal 2025: Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, RTX, Boeing and Northrop Grumman. New entrants are companies whose main contracting entity held no Department of War prime contract in fiscal 2008 through 2014, the earliest years USAspending's search covers. The rule also counts joint ventures and new subsidiaries, such as Cherokee Insights and the MilTrain JV, and Redwire, which bought Edge Autonomy in 2025. Companies with less than $1 million weren't checked and count as established. Budget figures are the research and procurement lines our budget desk maps to uncrewed and counter-drone systems.^19–20