U.S. Central Command has created a brand new activity pressure to face up the army’s first one-way assault drone squadron within the Center East, marking a shift towards quickly deployable, low-cost unmanned strike capabilities.
Job Drive Scorpion Strike was launched 4 months after Secretary of Conflict Pete Hegseth ordered the Pentagon to hurry acquisition and fielding of inexpensive drone techniques. Centcom mentioned the purpose is to place efficient assault drones into service rapidly and at scale.
In keeping with the announcement, the duty pressure has already assembled a squadron constructed round “low-cost unmanned fight assault system drones”. These platforms have lengthy attain and function autonomously, with launch strategies that embody “catapults, rocket-assisted takeoff, and cellular floor and automobile techniques”.
Centcom commander Adm. Brad Cooper mentioned the initiative is meant to vary adversary calculations. “This new activity pressure units the situations for utilizing innovation as a deterrent,” he mentioned. “Equipping our expert warfighters sooner with cutting-edge drone capabilities showcases U.S. army innovation and power, which deters unhealthy actors.”
The duty pressure is a part of a wider push to streamline procurement and speed up deployment of rising techniques. In September, Centcom established the Speedy Employment Joint Job Drive beneath its chief know-how officer to fast-track capabilities, software program and what it calls technological diplomacy. Scorpion Strike’s work on one-way assault drones sits squarely in that functionality strand and is being led by U.S. Particular Operations Command Central.
Centcom itself frames the venture as the beginning of a steady pipeline that may ship attritable strike drones to deployed forces at a tempo dictated by operational want quite than conventional procurement cycles.