America’s Drone Deficit: Structural and Cultural Barriers to U.S. Drone Adoption

For my final capstone project, I decided to investigate why the U.S. military has been slow to integrate small attritable drones. My research question was: Why has the U.S. military been slow to integrate small attritable drones despite learnings from Ukraine that suggest their strategic importance? To answer this question, I read many articles, interviewed my mentor in the Hoover National Security Affairs Fellowship Program, Col. Jerome Greco of the Marine Corps, and two employees in the Defense Innovation Unit, Dave Michelson, Director of the Autonomy Portfolio and Cdr. Cullen Greenfield, Program Manager in the Space Portfolio. Through my research and interviews, I learned that the barriers to drone integration are extremely interconnected. My final product, a long-format op-ed, narrowed in on four major contributing factors: domestic manufacturing insufficiencies, the DIU’s inability to validate drones at scale, training restrictions on military units, and a culture of hubris within the DoD. This project was particularly interesting in the context of the war in Ukraine and the recent drone attack orchestrated by the Ukrainian army, Operation Spider’s Web. I would like to thank Col. Jerome Greco in particular for supporting me throughout this project.