Gauntlet II

Gauntlet II is the live-fly evaluation that decides which drones the Pentagon’s Drone Dominance Program actually buys. Run by the Defense Innovation Unit, it is the second-phase down-select in a competition-to-procurement model: instead of awarding a single large contract, the Department of War puts competing systems through realistic trials and places orders with the ones that perform.

The Phase II qualifiers were held at Camp Grayling, Michigan, where 49 companies fielded 79 distinct uncrewed systems across mission scenarios that ranged from close-quarters tactical assaults to long-range strikes. The defining feature is who flies them: the final stage uses dynamic, unscripted scenarios piloted by trained warfighters rather than company demo crews, so the evaluation reflects how the drones hold up in operators’ hands rather than on a vendor’s best day. Entries compete inside fixed price envelopes — roughly $4,500 for long-range strike systems and $3,500 for close-quarters urban-assault platforms — and a top tier of performers is selected to receive orders, subject to compliance verification.

Gauntlet matters because it is the mechanism that turns the Drone Dominance Program’s funding into fielded hardware and, deliberately, into a broader manufacturing base: by rewarding performance and price over incumbency, it routes orders toward a new generation of low-cost American drone makers rather than the established primes.