https://sputnikglobe.com/20260826/us-drone-dominance-program-doomed-by-pentagons-neo-luddism-mic-profiteering-1124633381.html
US ‘Drone Dominance Program’ Doomed by Pentagon's Neo-Luddism, MIC Profiteering
US ‘Drone Dominance Program’ Doomed by Pentagon's Neo-Luddism, MIC Profiteering
Sputnik International
Problems with the US military’s Drone Dominance initiative stem from a broad assortment of issues, the biggest of which is a “longstanding departmental cultural and institutional lethargy and a kind of neo-Luddism inside the Pentagon,” Lt. Col. (ret.) Karen Kwiatkowski, a former DoD analyst herself, told Sputnik.
2026-08-26T16:57+0000
2026-08-26T16:57+0000
2026-08-26T16:57+0000
analysis
military & intelligence
karen kwiatkowski
pentagon
us department of defense (dod)
drone
drone warfare
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Commenting on reports of severe delays in drone procurement, even of the modest ~200k+ target set by the Pentagon through 2027, Kwiatkowski predicted that the program’s costs will continue to “rise, and its mission only partially and very slowly succeed, always behind the global rate of advancement, until the US imperial defense paradigm is abandoned for a real defensive approach.”The DDP “is just more old-think applied to the pre-existing acquisition and operational complex, and freedom to innovate is not only unlikely, but already too late,” she believes.One key problem? The types of drones that have proven most effectively in modern warfare are cheap, which means “they are not profitable.”This includes everything from funding decisions based on congressional districting, to mandates for minorities or women-owned businesses’ use under federal subcontracting regulations.The military’s drone warfare paradigm is trapped in “90s and 2000s technology and attitudes” of costly, large, reusable fixed-wing platforms that carry out their missions and return to base, not expendable munitions.
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military & intelligence, karen kwiatkowski, pentagon, us department of defense (dod), drone, drone warfare
military & intelligence, karen kwiatkowski, pentagon, us department of defense (dod), drone, drone warfare
US ‘Drone Dominance Program’ Doomed by Pentagon's Neo-Luddism, MIC Profiteering
Problems with the US military’s Drone Dominance initiative stem from a broad assortment of issues, the biggest of which is a “longstanding departmental cultural and institutional lethargy and a kind of neo-Luddism inside the Pentagon,” Lt. Col. (ret.) Karen Kwiatkowski, a former DoD analyst herself, told Sputnik.
Commenting on reports of severe delays in drone procurement, even of the modest ~200k+ target set by the Pentagon through 2027, Kwiatkowski predicted that the program’s costs will continue to “rise, and its mission only partially and very slowly succeed, always behind the global rate of advancement, until the US imperial defense paradigm is abandoned for a real defensive approach.”
The DDP “is just more old-think applied to the pre-existing acquisition and operational complex, and freedom to innovate is not only unlikely, but already too late,” she believes.
One key problem? The types of drones that have proven most effectively in modern warfare are cheap, which means “they are not profitable.”
“Cheap, smart, AI-facilitated ammunition produced en masse, designed to be expendable and not to be maintained/repaired, face a system where profit drives innovation…where experimentation is out of favor, and where people that know what they must do are shut down by generals and admirals at the top who are beholden to the Military Industrial and Congressional Complex.”
This includes everything from funding decisions based on congressional districting, to mandates for minorities or women-owned businesses’ use under federal subcontracting regulations.
The military’s drone warfare paradigm is trapped in “90s and 2000s technology and attitudes” of costly, large, reusable fixed-wing platforms that carry out their missions and return to base, not expendable munitions.
