LASSO — which was a new-start program in the previous budget — is now part of the service’s Launched Effects family of systems and has been realigned under that line item in the 2026 budget.

Drone maker AeroVironment has been manufacturing Switchblade systems for the initiative. The Switchblade 600 carries high-precision optics and an anti-armor warhead. It has upwards of 40 minutes of loitering endurance, a range of 40-plus kilometers, and a “sprint speed” of 185 kilometers per hour, according to a product description from the vendor. The all-up round weighs 65 pounds.

The request for additional loitering munitions — also known as kamikaze drones or one-way attack drones because they’re designed to destroy their targets by crashing into them — in 2026 comes as officials are undertaking a new Army Transformation Initiative to modernize the force for future high-tech combat. The service is moving to divest of capabilities that are outdated and put more money into other equipment.

“The Army Transformation Initiative, or ATI, as we’ve coined it, is a strategic shift. We’re reinvesting resources to ensure our future dominance as part of the joint force,” a senior Army officials told reporters Thursday at the Pentagon during a background briefing about the budget. “We made some tough choices to shed outdated systems and programs that no longer meet our demands of the modern battlefield,” including divesting from legacy anti-tank missiles, they noted.

Kamikaze drones have played a major role in the Ukraine-Russia war, and U.S. military leaders are taking lessons from that conflict as the seek to modernize their forces.

The Army is aiming to deliver five brigade combat teams-worth of loitering munitions in fiscal 2026. The budget request includes about $68 million for 98 fire control units, 294 all-up rounds and other program elements under LASSO. Nearly $13 million in reconciliation funding would procure an additional 19 LASSO production systems.

“Infantry Brigade Combat Teams (IBCTs) lack adequate proportional organic capabilities at echelon to apply immediate, point, long range, and direct fire effects to destroy tanks, light armored vehicles, hardened targets, defilade, and personnel targets, while producing minimal collateral damage in complex terrain in all environmental conditions,” officials wrote in budget justification documents.

Army leadership wants to give troops new kamikaze drones to fill that capability gap.

The man-portable LASSO is a day/night capable, lightweight, unmanned aerial anti-tank weapon that includes an all-up round and fire control system, according to an Army description of the technology.

“The LASSO range requirement is to fly less than or equal to 20km (straight line with auxiliary antenna) with a flight endurance that enables the Soldier to make multiple orbits within the IBCT typically assigned battlespace, to acquire and attack targets within and beyond current crew served and small arms fire. The range/endurance enables the unit to utilize reach back capability and maximize standoff. Unlike existing direct and indirect fire weapon systems, LASSO’s discreet payload and unique capability delivers Soldiers the ability to abort against targets in a dynamic situation (e.g., use of human shields) or prosecute targets that would have been deemed non-viable in past due to the higher collateral damage associated with alternative munitions,” according to budget documents. Follow-on increments are expected to support capabilities for company and below echelons, focusing on increased range, enhanced lethality and advanced payload options.

Officials noted that the program is aligned with ATI and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s directive for Army transformation and acquisition reform.

It’s also intended to support the Army’s transforming-in-contact initiative — an effort spearheaded by Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George with a particular focus on unmanned aerial systems, counter-UAS and electronic warfare capabilities — and expand prepositioned stocks in the Indo-Pacific region, where the U.S. military is concerned about a potential future conflict with China.

The LASSO program will use other transaction authority for contracting, which is intended to cut through bureaucratic red tape and help the military field new technologies faster than traditional acquisition processes. Officials also intend to award up to four hardware contracts to modernize the industrial base and generate domestic ammunition stockpiles, according to budget documents.

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“The drone struck [Rumalyn Landing Zone] at about 5 p.m. EST [on Friday], late into the evening in Syria, and caused damage to one set of facilities,” Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said during an off-camera briefing. 

He largely declined to provide the latest details about the drone’s maker or origin in response to reporters’ questions, noting that the incident review is ongoing. 

But Ryder said U.S. Central Command, which oversees American military operations in the Middle East and is leading the assessment, have at this point “credited swift and effective preemptive measures as limiting the drone’s effect.”

“We have a significant amount of air defense capability. I’m not going to go into the specifics in terms of where that’s located and how it’s employed. Certainly, we are going to continue to do everything we can to ensure that U.S. forces are protected no matter where they’re serving,” Ryder said.

He told DefenseScoop that Pentagon leadership has no plans to announce new measures for boosting surveillance or air defense assets in that specific location, following the attack.

“As a matter of course, commanders are always assessing the situation, always looking at how we can make sure that we’re protecting our forces and, most importantly, conducting our mission,” he said.

About 900 American troops are currently operating in Syria to support local forces and partners working to counter any possible resurgences of the Islamic State terrorist organization.

This latest one-way drone attack there comes against the backdrop of escalating tensions between the United States and Iran-backed militia groups around the broader region, and amid intensifying concerns that Israel’s war in Gaza will morph into a wider conflict in the Middle East.

So far, “no group has claimed responsibility for the [Aug. 9] attack,” a defense official told DefenseScoop on Monday.

Although initial reports stated that American troops were not wounded at Rumalyn Landing Zone, the official said on Monday that multiple U.S. and coalition personnel were treated for minor injuries, including smoke inhalation.

“Others are being examined for traumatic brain injuries. Out of an abundance of caution, several service members were transported to a separate location for further assessment and evaluation,” the official told DefenseScoop.

Centcom spokespersons did not respond on Monday to requests for further information about the attack or a timeline for the ongoing assessment, and White House officials referred questions back to the Defense Department.

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Kamikaze drones — also known as loitering munitions, suicide drones, or one-way attack (OWA) unmanned aerial systems — have played a prominent role in the ongoing Ukraine-Russia war and have also been used in other regions of the world such as Nagorno-Karabakh and the Middle East. They’re also a growing concern for U.S. military commanders who want to protect their forces.

“My challenge working with, you know, our [combatant command] partners is, you know, how do we stop the one-way attack UASs that have grown from these quadcopter type threats … more to, you know, destructive loitering munitions” that are being used in Ukraine and elsewhere, said Army Maj. Gen. Sean Gainey, director of the Joint Counter-small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Office (JCO) and director of fires in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, G-3/5/7.

“This is so important and why my office was designated to get after this problem set,” he said during a presentation at the Association of the United States Army’s annual convention in Washington on Wednesday.

The JCO, as the executive agent for DOD initiatives to defeat Group 1-3 drones, is planning to host a technology demonstration in the third quarter of fiscal 2023 and will soon ask industry for white papers.

“That request for white paper will outline what we’re looking for from industry on a defeat of Group 3 one-way attack [drones]. We know this is a threat. We know it’s important to the COCOMs, important to the services,” said Col. Michael Parent, division chief for acquisition and resources in the JCO.

“We want to make sure that we can put this out to industry and let them come back with the solutions. We’re not going to tell them how to do it, they’re gonna come back and tell us how they can solve this problem to get after this threat, which is continuing to evolve. Our adversaries are continuing to evolve this threat, and we must be able to be in the forefront to get at it. And that’s what that demo intends to do,” he added.

The white paper is expected to be released in the next week or two, according to Parent.

Kamikaze drones are the high priority threat, he noted.

“We see that a lot in theater,” he told DefenseScoop. “That one-way attack is something that we have been told again and again by the COCOMs and services that this is something that’s evolving … and we must therefore evolve with it. So this is something that’s coming up quickly.”

The JCO has an “aggressive timeline” for moving forward after the white paper comes out, he noted.

“We want to get the goodness from industry and what they can do,” Parent said. “We’re gonna expect industry to come back very quickly. We’re going to evaluate their proposals, hear from them about those proposals. And then we’re going to react very quickly to it and get to that demo and very quickly get after it.”

Gainey noted that the U.S. military needs a layered defense to address a variety of drone threats.

While electronic warfare systems are one option, “kinetic” air defense capabilities may be better suited for defeating loitering munitions, he suggested.

Although the U.S. military wants new technology solutions, it isn’t currently defenseless against suicide drones, Gainey said.

“I don’t want you to walk away from here thinking that we don’t have capability just because we’re doing a demo. We do have capability. And our integrated air-and-missile defense posture that we’re developing in the Army also provides a capability against the Group 3” systems, Gainey told DefenseScoop.

Meanwhile, the JCO is updating its counter-drone operational requirements document that was published about two years ago, according to Col. Cedric Lee, the office’s division chief for requirements and capabilities. The operational requirements include materiel and non-materiel solutions.

The JCO is working with the services and combatant commands on the update, with the aim of publishing it by the end of this calendar year.

To office is also looking for better ways to help get advanced technology developed by industry into the hands of soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines.

“We are currently developing a process, right, in which industry can submit their counter-UAS capabilities … to get JCO endorsement,” Lee said. The ultimate goal is to publicize those up-to-date, advanced capabilities for the services and the combatant commands to then procure.

At the AUSA conference, Gen. James Rainey, the new commanding general of Army Futures Command, told DefenseScoop that developing capabilities to defeat loitering munitions is “hugely critical.”

“Not only is it a current problem, but we believe that as we start developing better capabilities, we’re going to have to be in a continuous improvement process” to keep up with threats, he said.

During the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, the Army accepted risk in its air-and-missile defense portfolio as it prioritized other efforts, he said.

“We are now pursuing the growth of that at the max possible speed,” he said. “There’s going to be a need to continue to provide [soldiers] with new and better kit.”

However, the Army isn’t just focused on defensive capabilities, he noted, adding that the joint force also has a lot of offensive capability to go after these types of threats.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military has its own kamikaze drones and is developing new ones. For example, the DOD has provided AeroVironment’s Switchblade systems and AEVEX Aerospace’s new Phoenix Ghost drone to Ukraine for use against Russian invaders.

“What I’d be concerned about and most hopeful to do is to just take advantage from an acquisition standpoint of the innovation” that’s happening in industry, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology Doug Bush told DefenseScoop at the conference.

He noted that vendors have been showcasing their systems at the AUSA convention and other trade shows.

“There’s lots of companies innovating here, which is great,” he said. “We’re not dependent on one company for this, we’ve got tremendous innovation happening in this space. So it just gives us lots of opportunities … When the Army decides to prioritize this, I think that gives us the ability to go very quickly when we get there using for example rapid prototyping, or if it’s far enough along even just a rapid fielding pathway if we need to.”

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