How the Pentagon picks what drones to buy in a Chinese-dominated market

The Blue UAS List has a rigorous process for selecting drones that US military personnel can use. US Army photo by Staff Sgt. Anthony Herrera 2026-02-25T17:50:59.152Z Share Copy link Email Facebook WhatsApp X LinkedIn Bluesky Threads lighning bolt icon An icon in the shape of a lightning bolt.

Impact Link Save Saved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? Log in. The Pentagon has a list of drones approved for military personnel to buy and use. The Blue UAS List is one of the ways DoD is dealing with China's dominance of the drone market and supply chain. DoD has a larger focus on buying more drones and boosting US drone production. The US Department of Defense is rapidly embracing drones across the services and steering troops toward systems vetted to avoid Chinese supply chains. The push reflects a broader Pentagon effort to field large numbers of low-cost drones quickly without creating new dependencies that could backfire in a fight.The Blue UAS [Uncrewed Aerial Systems] List provides service branches and federal agencies with a catalog of approved drones they can buy. The approval process focuses on cheaper, off-the-shelf UAS that the Pentagon can easily buy and upgrade. The criteria for the list align with the Pentagon's wider drone strategy, including the Drone Dominance Program, which is testing commercial platforms from 25 companies.The Blue UAS program was established in 2020 to identify drones compliant with US government standards, particularly cybersecurity and supply-chain rules. In December 2025, the Defense Contract Management Agency launched an official Blue UAS List website cataloging the models that military personnel could use. The DCMA said that the list would expedite the process of getting drones into troops' hands, help jump-start investments in UAS technologies in the drone industrial base, and spark reforms in DoD's acquisition processes.Fifty-four drones have been cleared for training use, and 29 have passed additional reviews for operational deployment. Those selected drones include Shield AI's V-Bat, Skydio-made drones, Performance Drone Works' C100, and AeroEnvironment's Red Dragon. DoD plans on buying hundreds of thousands of low-cost, one-way attack drones in the next two years. US Army photo by Sgt.

Aaron Troutman To make the Blue UAS List, drones have to meet strict legal, cybersecurity, and operational requirements. Assessments are completed on whether the drones have any vulnerabilities, such as parts sourced from certain foreign countries or exposure to supply chain risks.A range of drones, drone parts, and software are part of the Blue UAS program. Many of the approved systems are tailored to specific missions but can be modified or upgraded as requirements evolve. One of the biggest factors in creating this list was concerns over a Chinese-dominated drone market.According to the Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International, Chinese companies control 90% of the commercial drone market. US officials have said the Blue UAS List is an effort to curb China's leverage over the market, including over key components such as motors that Beijing could restrict in a conflict, potentially disrupting US drone production. Despite the Blue UAS List's goal of compiling drones that aren't reliant on Chinese parts, sources told DefenseScoop last November that most of the approved drones rely on Chinese-made motors."While these Chinese-made motors are referred to as 'dumb components' experts say the issue is less about espionage risk and more about availability and resilience," a recent report from the Institute for Defense and Government Advancement said. "In a conflict or trade disruption, US drone production could stall almost immediately due to reliance on Chinese supply chains." American-made motors are typically more expensive, raising questions about how quickly Washington can scale domestic production and drive down costs. The drone program is one of the ways DoD is expediting the development and implementation of small drones across forces. US Marine Corps photo by Cpl.

Joshua Bustamante Concerns about China-free drones and the defense supply chain are more broadly sparking investments in a stronger American-made drone industry, which is an aspect of the Pentagon's Drone Dominance Program. When US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced the Pentagon's drone priorities in July 2025, he wrote that DoD would bolster US drone manufacturing, support investments in the domestic industry, and push for more low-cost drones and technological evolutions to get more drones to troops faster.DoD ultimately aims to field hundreds of thousands of low-cost, one-way attack drones by 2027. It has said it will invest more than $1 billion in the drone market over the next two years through the Drone Dominance Program. The most recent development in the Drone Dominance Program is an initial test on one-way attack drones, which is happening now through next month at Fort Benning in Georgia.The testing, called Gauntlet, involves drones from over two dozen companies, including a lot of smaller startups and two Ukrainian firms. When Gauntlet's done, DoD will buy roughly $150 million in prototypes of selected drones. "While the Gauntlet is not itself a formal Blue UAS listing action, it is tightly aligned with the program's purpose and trajectory," the IDGA report said. It reflects DoD's shift toward iterative, competitive acquisition of new weapons that occur in months rather than years.