Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has signed a memo creating a new Pentagon office with sweeping authority over nearly every drone and autonomous systems program in the U.S. military, centralizing decisions that have historically been made separately by the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps.
The memo, signed June 29 and made public July 1-2, establishes the Direct Reporting Portfolio Manager for Unmanned Systems, or DRPM-UxS — an office that will function as a single joint integrator for the Defense Department's unmanned and autonomy portfolio, according to C4ISRNET. The new office reports directly to Deputy Secretary of Defense Stephen Feinberg, placing it just below Hegseth and Feinberg in the chain of milestone decision authority for drone acquisition programs across the department.
No individual has yet been named to lead the DRPM-UxS, DefenseScoop reported July 1, even as the office's authorities are already being written into the Pentagon's acquisition structure.
What the New Office Controls
The scope of the DRPM-UxS is unusually broad for a single Pentagon office. According to C4ISRNET, it will control buying authority for unmanned platforms, oversee congressional engagement on drone-related matters, and hold the power to prevent individual systems from reaching deployment if they fail to meet the office's standards. It can also shift funding between programs run by different services — an authority that effectively lets the office override service-level budget priorities for drones and autonomy.
That reach extends across an enormous piece of the defense budget. The office will oversee $53.6 billion in the latest budget request tied to autonomous platforms, per C4ISRNET's reporting. DroneXL, citing the memo, put the broader unmanned portfolio the office touches at $75 billion, with the Defense Innovation Unit designated as the primary front door for industry engagement across that spending.
DefenseScoop reported that the consolidation folds in ground robotics, small air systems, and nearly all sea-based unmanned vehicle programs — a cross-domain sweep that had previously been managed independently by each service's own program offices. Two existing Pentagon bodies, the Defense Autonomous Warfare Group and Joint Interagency Task Force 401, will become subordinate offices under the new DRPM-UxS rather than operating as standalone entities.
Why Now
Hegseth's memo frames the reorganization as a response to the pace at which rival militaries are fielding drones. DefenseScoop reported that global military unmanned systems production has skyrocketed over the last three years while the United States has been slow to field these capabilities at scale — a gap Hegseth's memo cites as the rationale for consolidating U.S. authority under one office rather than leaving it fragmented across four services with different requirements, contracting timelines, and technical standards.
DroneXL characterized the move as part of a broader Hegseth push to speed up procurement, framing the new office as an acceleration mechanism rather than just a management fix — with the Defense Innovation Unit's role as industry gateway meant to shorten the path from commercial drone technology to fielded military systems.
What Stays With the Services
Not every program falls under the new office. According to C4ISRNET and DroneXL, marquee programs — the Air Force's Collaborative Combat Aircraft, a family of autonomous fighter-teaming drones, and the Navy's MQ-25 carrier-based refueling drone, along with the Navy's MQ-4C Triton — remain excluded from the DRPM-UxS structure and stay under the direct control of their respective services. That carve-out suggests the Pentagon is drawing a line between large, already-established programs of record and the sprawling, less mature landscape of smaller unmanned ground, air, and sea systems that the new office is meant to bring under joint control.
Q&A: The Basics
What is the DRPM-UxS?
The Direct Reporting Portfolio Manager for Unmanned Systems — a new Pentagon office created by a memo Hegseth signed June 29, reporting directly to Deputy Secretary of Defense Stephen Feinberg.
Who runs it?
No leader has been named yet, according to DefenseScoop's July 1 reporting.
What programs does it cover?
Ground robotics, small air systems, and nearly all sea-based unmanned vehicle programs, per DefenseScoop. It absorbs the Defense Autonomous Warfare Group and Joint Interagency Task Force 401 as subordinate offices, with the Defense Innovation Unit serving as the industry-engagement interface.
What's excluded?
The Air Force's Collaborative Combat Aircraft and the Navy's MQ-25 and MQ-4C Triton remain with their individual services, according to C4ISRNET and DroneXL.
How much money is involved?
C4ISRNET reported the office oversees $53.6 billion in the latest budget request for autonomous platforms; DroneXL put the broader portfolio it touches at $75 billion.
Why It Matters
The DRPM-UxS represents one of the most significant reorganizations of Pentagon drone authority in years, and it arrives with real teeth: milestone decision power second only to Hegseth and Feinberg, cross-program funding flexibility, and control over how Congress is engaged on drone matters. For the services, it means a substantial chunk of unmanned systems decision-making — historically a jealously guarded prerogative of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps acquisition bureaucracies — now runs through a single joint office answering to the deputy secretary.
For industry, the designation of the Defense Innovation Unit as the primary interface for a $75 billion portfolio signals where drone and autonomy contractors should expect to route their pitches going forward, potentially reshaping how commercial drone makers and traditional defense primes compete for Pentagon business. And for Congress, the office's explicit control over congressional engagement on drone matters means lawmakers overseeing unmanned systems programs will increasingly be dealing with one centralized office rather than four separate service acquisition chains — a shift that could speed up oversight or concentrate it, depending on how the still-unnamed leadership approaches the job.
The exclusion of CCA, MQ-25, and MQ-4C Triton shows the Pentagon isn't attempting a total unification of every drone program, but the scope of what remains — ground robots, small UAS, and nearly the entire sea-based unmanned fleet — still represents the bulk of the department's fragmented drone landscape, now brought under one authority explicitly justified by the pace of adversary drone production.
