The Pentagon has accepted 12,080 of the 30,000 one-way attack drones it ordered from its Drone Dominance Program in March. The figure is on the programme’s own leaderboard, stamped “current as of 9/10/2026” and posted alongside the Gauntlet II results on 15 September.
Travis Metz, the programme manager, told the Senate Armed Services Committee on 5 March that the drones “will be delivered to military units over the next five months.” That window closed in early August. As of 10 September, vendors had shipped 19,800 and the government’s quality check had passed 12,080. Another 7,720 sat in the queue marked “pending inspection”.
The 30,000 was never one order. FlightBrief added up the leaderboard: 22,320 drones in base orders across the eleven Gauntlet I winners, plus a bonus pool of 7,680 handed out for delivery performance. Neros has taken 2,000 of the pool. The site says 5,680 remains.
Skycutter, the London firm that won Gauntlet I with 99.3 points, holds the largest base order at 2,560. It has shipped 1,280, all still awaiting inspection, and has not shipped the other 1,280. Perennial Autonomy, third on points, has shipped 1,160 of 2,320 and has none accepted either. It appeared on the March leaderboard as Napatree; Eric Schmidt set the company up as White Stork in 2023.
The companies that finished lower delivered. Ukrainian Defense Drones shipped and cleared all 2,000 of its order, and Griffon Aerospace cleared all 1,920. Neros, second on points, cleared its 2,400 by July and has since shipped the 2,000 bonus units, which are waiting on inspection.
ModalAI has 1,840 of 2,240 accepted. Auterion has 560 of 2,160.
Accepted means the aircraft passed the government’s quality check. The leaderboard adds that every drone must also clear NDAA and Blue UAS compliance verification by the Defense Contract Management Agency, and that “awards are not guaranteed.” When the test directors published the first leaderboard on 5 March they wrote that “failure is not final” and called it “the box score from the first inning.”
The pace picked up late. On 7 June the same leaderboard showed 20,000 drones on order and about 560 shipped by anyone other than Neros. Three months later shipments stood at 19,800. Inside Unmanned Systems reported on 25 August that vendors were short of NDAA-compliant motors, batteries, chips and speed controllers, the parts the programme bars them from buying in China.
Gauntlet II, run at Fort Carson in August, ranked drones for two missions. Perennial Autonomy came first for deep strike at 15 km, ahead of Hyperscale and Neros, with Skycutter fourth. Neros came first for close-quarters battle, ahead of ORQA US and XTEND. Every company had first to build 120 armed drones in about five weeks to be allowed in.
The programme says it “will place orders for 60,000 drones” from the companies on the two boards, eight in all, and that quantities “will be finalized upon contract award.” The leaderboard shows zero ordered against each name. Ukrainian Defense Drones and Griffon, the two Gauntlet I vendors that delivered everything, made neither top five.
The next round is Mission C, reusable bomber and dropper drones, with about $32 million in prototype orders. Its qualifier is planned for October.
