Inspired by Ukraine, US Army picks two commercially available drones

The U.S. Army has chosen Anduril’s Ghost X and Performance Drone Works’ C-100 to provide reconnaissance and other capabilities to company-level units, the service announced Wednesday. 

The effort to field small drones to companies is a “priority,” Army Futures Command chief Gen. James Rainey said in a press release, adding that the push was “based on observations from the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.” 

Ukraine and Russia heavily use drones to coordinate artillery fire, scout enemy positions, and drop munitions. 

The first tranche of the purchase will be worth $14.5 million under a ten-year contract. The Army, which set out its requirements in June 2023, said it sought drones that could be quickly reconfigured, field a variety of payloads, and cost so little that losing them would not constitute a major burden. 

The Ghost and C-100 are already in use in limited quantities across the Army. In August, the 101st Airborne’s 2nd Brigade employed the C-100 in an exercise against troops playing their adversary at the Joint Readiness Training Center, who themselves were flying the Ghost.  

The Ghost is a helicopter-like drone, and has a flight time of 75 minutes with a range of 25 kilometers. It is navigated by waypoints, which can be changed mid-flight to investigate targets of interest. Its long body requires a rifle-like case for transport. 

The C-100 is a multi-rotor drone, similar to those seen across Ukraine. It has a flight time of 74 minutes and a range of 10 kilometers. Pilots fly the C-100 via a stick-controller after three days of flight instruction. The drone can be carried by backpack.

Both drones weigh under 55 pounds, and can carry various payloads. PDW also advertises the C-100 as capable of dropping munitions, similar to Ukraine’s drone bombers. The two drones are also equipped with a range of software features, including the ability to identify targets. 

The Army release did not say how many of each drone would be purchased, nor how much they cost. In January, PDW CEO Ryan Gury told Defense One that the C-100’s “core vehicle” cost less than $50,000.  

The Army’s company-level drone program sits between its short-range reconnaissance program, which provides small quadcopters to platoons, and a long-range reconnaissance program meant to provide surveillance capabilities to battalions. The Army fields the Skydio RQ-28A for its short-range program and plans to assess prototypes for the long-range program in fiscal 2026. 

Soldiers in the 2nd Brigade’s Lethal Unmanned Systems platoon, which serves under the 2nd Brigade’s Multi-Purpose Company, told Defense One during its August training exercise that they expected to eventually replace their Skydio short-range quadcopters with the C-100. 

In dense vegetation, Skydios had a range of as little as one kilometer, soldiers said, forcing them to operate near the front line. Moving to the C-100 would allow the lightly armed soldiers to fly farther from the front and keep their drones airborne longer.  

The 101st Airborne’s Robotic and Autonomous Systems platoon was already operating the C-100 during the August training exercise. 

The announcement begins to fulfill the Army’s February promise that it would replace its aging drone fleet with newer, commercially available drones. Both the Ghost and C-100 are listed on the Defense Innovation Unit’s Blue list, a registry of commercially available drones available for purchase by the military. Unlike other drones on the list, though, these two are primarily marketed for military applications.  

In Wednesday’s press release, Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George called the effort “a great example” of how the service is implementing its months-old fielding concept dubbed “transforming in contact.” 

The concept, announced in February, seeks to put new tech faster into the hands of select units in order for them to give feedback and develop new doctrine. The program relies in part on commercially available software and technology. Three brigades have been selected to implement the concept: the 101st Airborne Division’s 2nd brigade, the 10th Mountain Division’s 3rd Brigade, the 25th Infantry Divisions’s 2nd Brigade.