The Pentagon now counts paperwork as a threat: under a new directive from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, every office that reviews or approves a counter-drone request must treat a delay in handling it as an operational risk, DefenseScoop reported. The five-page memorandum, dated Sept. 28 and publicly released Friday, Oct. 2, aims to speed counter-drone deployments across U.S. military bases, critical infrastructure and other domestic assets. It goes after the administrative steps that have historically slowed the department's adoption of counter-drone hardware and software, chiefly radio spectrum and frequency authorization delays and what DefenseScoop called "often arduous safety review processes."
"The Department will take down barriers so our warfighters can take down drones," Hegseth wrote in the memo.
For companies selling counter-unmanned aircraft systems (C-UAS) to the Defense Department, the directive targets the stretch of the sales cycle that comes after a product works and before troops can switch it on: frequency approval, weapon safety review and authority to operate.
Why the Memo Reclassifies Approval Delays as Operational Risk
The central change is one of framing: waiting on an approval now counts as a risk in its own right. According to NewsNation, which was given part of the memo, it instructs the department to treat delays in the employment of counter-unmanned aircraft systems as an "operational risk."
Hegseth spelled out what he expects reviewers to do differently. "This memorandum directs the Department to accept prudent risks, identify approval paths early, staff them fast, standardize them across the Department, and elevate them when they stall," he wrote, as quoted by NewsNation.
Elsewhere in the memo, quoted by DefenseScoop, Hegseth put it more bluntly: "Protection against the threat of drones will not be delayed by self-imposed restrictions." NewsNation quoted a further line from the document: "We will not answer a fast-moving threat with a slow-moving bureaucracy."
NewsNation also reported that the memo says the United States cannot fall behind as drone technology becomes more ubiquitous and less expensive.
How JIATF-401 Becomes the Counter-Drone Clearinghouse
The memo gives new weight to Joint Interagency Task Force 401, which Hegseth previously launched to lead the Pentagon's high-priority counter-drone initiatives. DefenseScoop described the directive as appearing to serve as an enforcement mechanism for the task force.
Under the memo, JIATF-401 becomes the department's "synchronization point" for C-UAS employment, working with the military services, combatant commands, department components and interagency partners. It also takes on a data role in weapon safety reviews. "JIATF-401 will serve as a repository for technical data, common hazard assessments, approved mitigation measures, and threat intelligence" in all C-UAS weapon safety reviews, Hegseth wrote.
A shared repository could change how safety reviews run in practice. If hazard assessments and approved mitigations already sit in one place, a reviewer looking at a system for a new base does not have to rebuild the analysis from scratch. The memo, as reported, does not say how quickly the repository will be stood up or how vendors will contribute data to it.
Army Lt. Col. Adam Scher, the task force's spokesperson, told DefenseScoop that JIATF-401 "is taking aggressive action to streamline bureaucratic approvals and remove barriers that delay lawful, safe, and effective counter-drone operations." Under the directive, he said, the task force will continue to track and eliminate enterprise barriers so the military has modern counter-UAS tools to defend the nation.
"We know that C-UAS capability is more than hardware; it requires the right training, policies, and permissions to empower our warfighters to protect themselves and critical infrastructure from the illicit use of drones," Scher said. "JIATF-401 will not accept a slow-moving bureaucracy when faced with a fast-moving threat."
A 30-Day Spectrum Review and Project Spectrum Strike
Radio spectrum is the first bottleneck the memo assigns to a named official. Hegseth directed the DOD chief information officer to review, within 30 days, the process by which department components "submit C-UAS spectrum requests to interdepartmental spectrum authorities and provide recommendations to accelerate spectrum approval," according to DefenseScoop.
The CIO's review covers how requests move from DOD components to the interdepartmental spectrum authorities, the frequency authorization step DefenseScoop identified as one of the bottlenecks the memo targets.
The CIO will also support the Defense Innovation Unit's "Project Spectrum Strike" work by incorporating C-UAS spectrum management requirements into the associated solution selections, according to DefenseScoop's account of the memo. That ties counter-drone spectrum needs to a DIU initiative, though the reporting does not detail Project Spectrum Strike's scope or schedule.
Cutting Authority-to-Operate Timelines From Months to Days
The memo's most direct line to industry concerns authority to operate, the approval a system needs before the department will put it into operation. Per the memo, the DOD chief digital and AI officer will coordinate with the CIO, the Office of General Counsel, the Defense Information Systems Agency, U.S. Cyber Command, the military services and components to establish a single, department-wide approval process.
The goal, as DefenseScoop reported, is to cut ATO timelines from months to just days or weeks for tested, validated systems.
The qualifier matters. The faster path applies to systems that are already tested and validated, not to every product a company wants to field. Pentagon spokespersons did not respond to DefenseScoop's request for comment by publication.
What It Means for Contractors
Counter-drone suppliers should read the memo as a change in who carries the burden of delay. When approval authorities must treat a stalled request as operational risk and elevate it, a vendor whose system sits in a spectrum or safety queue plausibly has a stronger policy basis for pushing that request up the chain.
Three practical points follow from the directive:
- Testing and validation data carry more weight. The faster ATO process is limited to tested, validated systems, so firms with complete test records are likely to be best placed to benefit.
- JIATF-401 is a place to engage. As the synchronization point and the repository for hazard assessments and approved mitigations, the task force is positioned to shape how safety reviews treat a given system.
- Spectrum changes may come quickly. The CIO's 30-day review and the tie-in to Project Spectrum Strike could produce new submission procedures for C-UAS spectrum requests within weeks.
The memo does not, as reported, add funding or name specific systems. Its effect on contract timelines will depend on how the CIO, the chief digital and AI officer and JIATF-401 carry out the assignments, and contractors should watch for the CIO's spectrum recommendations and the unified ATO process as the first concrete outputs.
