U.S. company UDD Tech Corp, which secured an order for 2,000 Ukrainian-made F-Drones drones following the first round of the Pentagon’s Drone Dominance competition, has qualified for the program’s second stage — Gauntlet II. The list of companies advancing in the competition has been published on the program’s official website, DroneDominance.mil.
The selection followed a qualifying event at Camp Grayling, Michigan, where 49 companies put 79 unmanned systems through long-range strike and urban-environment scenarios. Nineteen participants have been admitted to Gauntlet II itself, which kicks off in late summer.
UDD Tech established its position in the program back in stage one. At the Gauntlet held in February at Fort Benning, Georgia, the company fielded the F10 strike FPV drone from Ukrainian manufacturer F-Drones — a platform with more than three years of combat use in Ukraine — and finished sixth among 25 participants. That result placed it among the eleven winners: the Pentagon ordered 2,000 Ukrainian drones under a prototype contract.
On the heels of its first-round win, UDD Tech Corp announced the construction of an assembly facility in Holland, Ohio — an $18.4 million investment expected to create at least 300 jobs.
The stakes rise in round two: the Pentagon plans to order another 60,000 drones in September, and each Gauntlet II participant must bring 120 aircraft to the trials. The competition expands to night operations and more complex urban and confined environments, with contenders competing in two categories — long-range strike systems (up to 20 km) and drones for close-quarters indoor combat. The competitive field has also grown stronger, with major American players, including AeroVironment, joining the contest for the first time.
The Drone Dominance Program is a two-year, $1.1 billion initiative of the U.S. Department of War aimed at procuring more than 200,000 low-cost American-made strike drones by 2027. Results of each stage are published on the open leaderboard at DroneDominance.mil.