WASHINGTON, Sept. 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The Office of the Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering (OUSW(R&E)) and the United States National Drone Association (USNDA) today announced the transition of the Top Drone^™ program from OUSW(R&E) to USNDA.  The USNDA's National Drone Wars^™ and Drone Crucibles will become the primary venue to identify America's Top Drone Talent among the Military's rank and file.

"The Defense Innovation Unit has been executing the Secretary's directive to kickstart the American Drone Industrial Base, but the Services are the employment experts," said Mr. Owen West, DIU Director. "Competition has, is, and always will be the best mechanism to identify American top talent and drive innovation for fire teams now capable of striking beyond the limits of what we used to call division battle space".

First run at OUSW(R&E)'s Technology Readiness Experimentation event T-REX 25-2 in August 2025, Top Drone now scales into a standing interservice competition. The partnership supports the execution of Executive Order 14307, "Unleashing American Drone Dominance" (June 6, 2025), and the Secretary of War's July 10, 2025 directive to integrate drone capability into all relevant combat training, including "force-on-force Drone Wars."

The competition pits attack drone teams against one another in scenario-based missions built to push military operators farther and faster, through electronic warfare environments, across multidomain terrain, and in offensive and defensive engagements, all in the hunt to become designated as a one of the military's Top Drone Operators. Industry and academic partners support the field as technology providers through the USNDA Arms Room, but the focus and priority is on the operators in the arena.

Ongoing Competitions will invite operators from three classes: (1) Service Academies (e.g., the U.S. Naval Academy, West Point); (2) Conventional Forces (e.g., Army, Marine Corps); and (3) Special Operations (e.g., Army Rangers, Naval Special Warfare, and MARSOC).

"Achieving American drone dominance is about more than scaling lethal capabilities. It's also about developing the world-class operators who will execute the mission," said Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering Emil Michael. "We will continue to move at maximum speed to put our elite warfighters to the test, proving they can dominate in contested environments and across multiple domains."

"Through our focus on rapid technology experimentation, we've seen time and time again, operator fluency is essential," said COL Matthew Limeberry, Director of Technology Readiness Experimentation (T-REX). "Top Drone is about pushing operators to move faster and adapt to the changing operational landscape."

The competition criteria will be established by an interservice operator-led Warfighter Advisory Group administered by USNDA.

"War has always been the most transparent baseline of warfighter readiness," said USNDA President Nathan Ecelbarger. "The second most transparent baseline is through competition, in advance of war. From the original games in Olympia in 776 BC, to the National Rifle Association's military competitions established in the 1870s, the competitive arena is where gaps in talent and capability are found for any nation's military.

We applaud and continue to fully support OSW programs like Drone Dominance, Swarm Forge, and DRPM UxS, and their support of operator-led drone competitions. Tech acquisitions without warfighter experimentation is a checkbook without a balance sheet. Operators must challenge each other, informed by experiential data across every AO, and demonstrate these capabilities are real."

Operators will fly platforms from the Drone Dominance Program and Swarm Forge Program and/or draw from the USNDA Joint Arms Room stocked by industry and academic partners to complete a series of missions employing unmanned systems. Further, this venue provides the department-wide access to any relevant programs seeking to leverage Top Drone Operator - led evaluation or validation of emerging group 1 & 2 and related capabilities.

The first OCONUS Drone Crucible will take place in Germany in November, extending invitations to Ukraine's SOF Drone Teams and other NATO partners.

The USNDA Top Drone National Drone Wars^™ championship will take place at an undisclosed CONUS DoW installation in Q1 2027.

Qualification criteria, entry standards and warfighter registration will be published in OCTOBER 2026 on the Drone Dominance Program's website at www.dronedominance.mil.

To express immediate interest, contact TOPDRONE@USNDA.ORG.

About the United States National Drone Association: USNDA is a warfighter enablement organization and the sanctioning body for interservice drone competition. Through quarterly Drone Crucibles, stateside and in theater, USNDA advances warfighter lethality and preparedness through (i) evaluation and integration of emerging technology platforms against validated mission sets; (ii) development and exchange of Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures; and (iii) robust, standards-based competition.

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SOURCE The United States National Drone Association