American defense planners are racing to catch up in a fight that is still mostly invisible to the public: the contest to control the skies with cheap, expendable drones that can fly in coordinated packs. As China pours resources into unmanned systems, a U.S. drone company has stepped into a central role, both challenging that industrial lead and teaching American troops how to survive and win against swarm attacks. The result is a quiet but profound shift in how the United States prepares for the next war.
Instead of focusing only on exquisite, billion‑dollar aircraft, the Pentagon is now betting on small quadcopters, first‑person‑view rigs and loitering munitions that can be built by the thousands and flown by junior troops. That shift is reshaping factories, training ranges and even the culture of the services, as commanders accept that future firefights will unfold under a buzzing cloud of autonomous and semi‑autonomous machines.
From light shows to live‑fire: a new kind of drone contractor
The most striking symbol of this change sits in Auburn Hills, where a drone startup that once choreographed aerial light shows has pivoted into warfighting. Instead of spelling out logos over stadiums, its engineers now script complex patterns for simulated attacks, helping soldiers rehearse how to spot, jam and shoot down incoming swarms. The same software that once synchronized hundreds of LEDs now coordinates dozens of small aircraft into realistic threat formations, turning Auburn Hills into an unlikely hub of tactical innovation linked directly to the front lines of training through an Auburn Hills drone startup.
What makes this company stand out is not just its technology but its role in a broader industrial push to loosen China’s grip on the global drone market. American officials have watched with concern as Chinese manufacturers flooded commercial and paramilitary channels, creating a dependency that is hard to square with a potential conflict. By retooling entertainment fleets into training and, eventually, combat‑ready platforms, the Auburn Hills team is part of a wave of American firms that are trying to prove they can match Chinese scale and sophistication while giving U.S. forces a realistic taste of coordinated swarm tactics before they face them in combat.
Training for the swarm fight across the services
The military is not leaving this transformation to contractors alone. The Marine Corps has launched a dedicated program to expand its cadre of small unmanned aircraft system operators, treating drone skills as a basic requirement rather than a niche specialty. According to guidance on The Marine Corps, the goal is to rapidly increase the number of Marines who can fly, maintain and tactically employ small systems at the squad and platoon level, so that every patrol can bring its own eyes and weapons overhead.
That effort is reinforced by a separate initiative described in a document titled What Is the, which notes that The Department of War said Wednesday the new training pipeline is designed to standardize first‑person‑view instruction and then export it to other branches starting in March 2026. By formalizing FPV skills, the Marines are acknowledging that the kind of agile, low‑flying drones popularized in civilian racing circuits are now central to battlefield reconnaissance and strike, and they are building a curriculum that can be shared across the joint force.
Army and Air Force scale up for massed drones
While the Marines focus on operators, the Army is trying to solve the supply problem. Starting next year, the service expects to be able to domestically mass‑produce upwards of 10,000 small unmanned aerial systems per month once its first dedicated production site is fully online. That figure is not just a manufacturing milestone, it is a statement of intent that the Starting point for modern land warfare is a sky crowded with cheap, attritable aircraft, and that the Army plans to flood its formations with them.
On the airpower side, the Air Force is moving from experiments to operational units built around swarms. Reporting from Defense Express notes that the Air Force plans to Create Drone Swarm Units by 2026, a move some analysts have described as Five Years Late, But Better Than Never in the race to deter a formidable adversary like China. In parallel, a separate update explains that US Air Force will stand up a new kamikaze drone squadron tasked with operational testing and evaluation, backed by a recruitment and training program that treats one‑way attack drones as a core mission set rather than a side project.
Policy shifts and the push to “unleash” drones at the edge
These service‑level moves are unfolding against a backdrop of sharper political focus on unmanned systems. In a document labeled Key Points and, analysts describe how Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has launched a new initiative to “unleash” the swarm by giving every U.S. Army squad its own attack drones and the authority to use them as necessary in the field. That concept pushes decision‑making down to the lowest echelons, on the theory that the unit in contact is best placed to decide when to send a loitering munition through a window or over a ridge.
At the same time, congressional scrutiny of Chinese‑made components has intensified, driving legislative language that nudges the Pentagon toward American suppliers. One American drone company has become a showcase for this shift, with its leaders telling FOX Business’ Kelly Saberi on the program hosted by Varn that American drone makers are in a race to counter China’s dominance in the future of war and to prepare troops for coordinated drone‑swarm attacks. That interview, captured in a segment on American efforts, underscored how industrial policy, training and frontline tactics are now intertwined in a single contest with China over who can field and counter swarms at scale.
Defending against the swarm and the road ahead
For all the enthusiasm about offensive drones, U.S. planners are equally worried about how to stop an enemy swarm. A report from the Center for a New American Security, flagged in its EXECUTIVE SUMMARY, warns that after decades of air dominance and a near monopoly on precision strike, U.S. forces now face a world where cheap unmanned aircraft can saturate defenses and overwhelm traditional surface‑to‑air systems. The authors argue that counter‑unmanned‑aircraft‑systems, or CUAS, must be treated as a core mission, with layered defenses that combine jamming, directed energy, kinetic interceptors and better early warning.
That is where the training work of the Auburn Hills company and its peers becomes strategically important. By staging realistic swarm attacks against U.S. units, they give troops a chance to practice the kind of rapid detection, communication and engagement that CUAS doctrine demands. Company executives have acknowledged in a separate interview that “we have a tall task” to scale up production and training to support American drone dominance, a point echoed in an urgency to scale American production. As I see it, the real test will be whether these parallel efforts in manufacturing, training and policy can converge fast enough to give U.S. forces not just more drones, but smarter ways to fight in a sky that is about to get very crowded.
More from Morning Overview