King: America Must Improve Drone Capabilities as Technology Changes Cost and Agility of War

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Angus King (I-ME) emphasized the critical need to improve drone manufacturing capabilities as changing technologies impact the cost and methods of 21^st century wars. In a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), Senator King questioned Mr. Travis Metz, Drone Dominance Program Manager at the Department of Defense (DoD) and Major General Steven Marks, Director at the Defense Autonomous Warfare Group at the DoD, on the research and acquisition of cost-effective drone technology and the impact of these drones on the severity and type of military injuries.

Senator King began the conversation with Metz to discuss the economic realities and current contracting system of the American defense industrial base - by pointing out that Ukraine is making drones at a fraction of the expense.

"Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to see a chart of number of units produced per month, in price, from the Ukrainian industry, versus what we are projecting. You mentioned that there have been -- you put out effectively a bid with a proposed price. I want to see the numbers. Can you give us that off the top of your head? How many are the Ukrainians producing a month and what do they costs, versus what we are projecting for this section one production that you have now bidding?," King questioned.

Metz responded, "It's an excellent question. So, the Ukrainians last year built roughly 4.5 million drones in total, 4.4 million of them were this, in this size range. We think that they will build about 6 million this year, so 500,000 a month. Historically, most Ukrainian drones are made from components primarily from China, although as I mentioned before they are also concerned about their supply chain vulnerabilities on that. And we think that there per unit pricing, depending on the nature of the FPV, is somewhere between $500 on the low end and the low thousands on the high-end. Our program is designed to, over the six-month cycles, lower prices."

"Lower prices from what? What are the prices now?" King asked in response.

Metz answered, "We are going to pay $5,000 per drone in phase one, the ones we are going to place orders this week. We intend by the end of this program -- our goal is to get down to less than $2000 for a one-way kamikaze attack drone."

"You understand why this is a legitimate question. They are doing it for $500-$1,000, We are talking about $5,000. Do you believe there's a realistic path to getting it down to $2000?" asked King.

"I do. I'm an optimist about the efficacy of the American industrial base when given a good framework and given real orders to go achieve it. I am confident that we will scale the prices down. Where the exact endpoint is, I think that's hard to know a priori. It's fair to say that I would not expect, given the way that the U.S. economy works in terms of labor rates and so forth, I would not expect us to match Chinese drone prices, " Metz responded.

King concluded, "I understand that, but my experience with large-scale contracting is that if you establish a number up front, miraculously, the companies find a way to meet it. Rather than waiting for them to give you the number."

Senator King then shared with Chairman Wicker the high percentage of casualties in Ukraine caused by drone technologies.

Senator King said, "The Wounded Warrior Project has pointed out to me that drone injuries are different than IED injuries, they're head and upper body as opposed to lower extremities. That's not necessarily a part of your mission, but I hope it is something the department is looking at, the nature of injuries, and the training necessary."

Chairman Wicker followed up, "Do any of you want to weigh in on the question about upper body injuries and what Senator King learned from the Wounded Warrior [Project]? Any of you have any insight on that?"

"It is something that we definitely have to go and look at, Senator. I would be interested to know a bit more about that. That is something that we've got to address as we continue to scale out these autonomous systems," General Marks replied.

"Well for whose ever is listening in DOD, the point that the Senator made, that someone needs to look at it," Chairman Wicker responded.

Senator King concluded, "Something like 75% of the casualties in Ukraine are caused by drones."

As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Senator King is recognized as an authoritative voice on national security and foreign policy issues. Senator King has previously spoken up about the emerging threats of Russia and China's development of "nightmare weapon" hypersonic missiles, as technology is changing the face of modern warfare around the globe. He previously urged the Department of Defense (DoD) to take advantage of private sector technologies or risk losing access to innovative defense technologies and encouraged the (DoD) to reevaluate its acquisition process of defense technologies.

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