Pentagon moves to accelerate counter-drone systems

The Pentagon issued a memorandum Friday to accelerate the “lawful, safe, and effective” employment of counter-unmanned aircraft systems across the department.

The memorandum, titled Accelerating Employment of Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems to Protect American Airspace Sovereignty, directs the Defense Department to eliminate “unnecessary” administrative and procedural barriers that can delay counter-drone capabilities for military forces, installations and other assets.

Under the new policy, approval authorities are instructed to treat delays in deploying c-UAS capabilities as an “operational risk.”

“This memorandum directs the Department to accept prudent risks, identify approval paths early, staff them fast, standardize them across the Department, and elevate them when they stall,” Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote in the memorandum.

Officials are also directed to use relevant previous approvals, testing data and established risk mitigations when making comparable decisions.

Where testing demonstrates that risks are low or manageable, authorities may use interim, conditional or time-limited approvals to accelerate deployment.

The memorandum also establishes additional accountability measures. Any denial of a request to employ a c-UAS capability must include a documented rationale and be submitted to Joint Interagency Task Force-401, or JIATF-401.