# Half the Army's drones are designed to be fired and lost

> The US Army is treating thousands of expendable drones like ammunition in combat exercises, a shift toward cheap, replaceable systems.
- Title: Half the Army's drones are designed to be fired and lost
- Summary: The US Army is treating thousands of expendable drones like ammunition in combat exercises, a shift toward cheap, replaceable systems. The US Army used…
- Keywords: us army, drones, saber junction, germany, drone dominance program, expendable systems, military technology, business, technology, Half, Army's, designed
- Source: Business Insider — https://businessinsider.com/half-of-drones-at-us-army-exercise-were-expendable-2026-9
- Author: Chris Panella
- Published: 2026-09-20T12:47:01.284+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: us army, drones, saber junction, germany, drone dominance program, expendable systems, military technology, business, technology
## Army brings thousands of expendable drones
At the Saber Junction exercise in Germany, the US Army used approximately one thousand nine hundred autonomous systems. Roughly half were designed to be consumable, used like ammunition in combat.
## Soldiers use drones without fear of loss
The Army's Drone Dominance Program aims to give soldiers enough low-cost systems that they can use and lose them freely. Maj. Gen. Christopher Norrie said numbers continue to increase every rotation.

> Those numbers continue to increase every rotation, and we will continue to increase them in future rotations.
## Drones treated as munitions in combat
Brig. Gen. Terry Tillis, head of the seventh Army Training Command, said soldiers were using the drones like a munition. They are fired to achieve effects on the battlefield.

> They're fired, and then it's employing them in a matter to achieve effects on the battlefield.
## Pentagon invests one billion in drones
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth issued a memo directing the Pentagon to overhaul how it purchases small uncrewed aerial systems. The Drone Dominance program is investing one billion dollars to purchase at least two hundred thousand drones through twenty twenty-seven.

> Small UAS resemble munitions more than high-end airplanes. They should be cheap, rapidly replaceable, and categorized as consumable.
## Army receiving thirty thousand more drones
Col. Gregory Merkl, director of drone dominance for the Army, said the service is receiving another thirty thousand drones currently. That is enough to get them down to every squad level.

> We're in the process of receiving another 30,000 drones currently. That is enough absolutely to get them down to every squad level.
## Soldiers build and customize their own drones
Soldiers are building and three D printing drone parts to quickly craft systems when needed. A brigade from the one hundred first Airborne Division assembled roughly one hundred fifty of two hundred twenty-eight attack drones they used in an exercise, each taking a couple of hours to build.

> If a company has only one or two drones, or a platoon has a single drone, it's a niche capability. But a company that is provided 20 drones a day has an entirely new form of combat power.
## Key takeaway

The US Army used roughly one thousand expendable drones at a recent exercise in Germany, treating them as consumable munitions rather than expensive equipment to preserve.