Transforming in Contact: The U.S. Army needs an unmanned systems command now

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth hosts a drone demonstration at the Pentagon on July 10, 2025. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Isaac Llanez Delgado)

By James Peterson • Apr 14, 2026

The United States Army is undergoing the Transformation in Contact initiative to prepare for large-scale combat operations against peer and near-peer threats.

The Secretary of the Army has prioritized integrating Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) into every echelon of the force. It is imperative to immediately establish a United States Army Unmanned Systems Command (USAUSC), drawing on lessons from Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces (USF) and insights from an interview with an Ukrainian Special Operations Forces team that developed its regiment’s unmanned systems capability.

While the Army is testing multiple short range-reconnaissance UAS, current fielding rates are insufficient for proper training and integration before the next conflict. To address this, the Army must tackle three foundational challenges: accelerate UAS acquisition through a bottom-up approach that empowers battalions to procure systems aligned with their mission-essential tasks, establish subject-matter expert cells and innovation labs at every battalion, and create a unified architecture using the Army Intelligence Data Platform (AIDP) to synchronize mission command, intelligence, and targeting across all echelons.