FACT SHEET: Department of Defense Strategy for Countering Unmanned Systems 1
The rapid development and proliferation of unmanned systems is changing the character of conflict. To meet this
challenge, the Department of Defense (DoD) has developed a classified strategy to unify the Department’s approach
to countering adversary use of these systems that looks across domains, characteristics, missions, and timeframes.
The strategy builds on other major DoD initiatives, including the standup of the Joint Counter-Small UAS Office, the
establishment of a Warfighter Senior Integration Group to meet urgent operational needs, and the launch of the
Replicator 2 initiative to defend against the threats of small aerial systems at our most critical installations and force
concentrations.
THE STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENT
Enabled by growing commercial innovation and the increasing sophistication of artificial intelligence (AI), autonomy,
and networking technology, unmanned systems are fundamentally changing how militaries of all sizes, capacities,
and capabilities – as well as non-state actors – achieve their objectives.
From the Middle East to Ukraine and across the globe – including in the U.S. homeland – unmanned systems are
reshaping tactics, techniques, and procedures; challenging established operational principles; and condensing military
innovation cycles. At the operational level, these systems are making it more difficult for forces to hide, concentrate,
communicate, and maneuver. They allow adversaries to more easily surveil, disrupt, or attack our forces, assets, and
installations, potentially without attribution. At the strategic level, unmanned systems provide aggressors with the
ability to reduce the initial human, financial, and reputational costs of conflict. The relatively low-cost, widely
available nature of these systems has, in effect, democratized precision strike.
Technological advances in the mid- to long-term will likely render unmanned systems increasingly capable,
affordable, autonomous, and networked – able to loiter for longer timespans, to communicate better with other
systems, move and act as swarms, and to carry larger payloads. These dynamics risk eroding deterrence and creating
new and uncertain escalation dynamics.
OUR STRATEGIC APPROACH
The Department is mitigating the potential negative effects of unmanned systems on U.S. forces, assets, and
installations – at home and abroad. A critical portion of our efforts, particularly in the near-term, comes from
improving our defenses, with an emphasis on detection as well as active and passive defenses. The Department will
ensure our forces and priority installations have protection. To stay ahead of advances in unmanned systems – and
their growing prevalence – the Department will prepare for more advanced challenges, pacing our future capabilities
to more stressing cases (e.g., larger numbers of increasingly capable and autonomous systems). Over the mid- and
long-term, the Department will also develop and design our future force to reduce their vulnerability and increase
their resilience to these threats. Taken together, these approaches will allow the Department to maintain our advances
and our ability to fight and win our Nation’s wars, if called upon.
Department of Defense Strategy for Countering Unmanned Systems
