Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has consolidated nearly all of the Pentagon's unmanned and autonomous systems programs under a single portfolio manager, according to a Department of War memorandum dated June 29. The order stands up the Direct Reporting Portfolio Manager for unmanned offensive and defensive systems, known as DRPM-UxS, and designates it the "single joint integrator" for all unmanned and autonomous system programs that until now have been spread across the military services and a patchwork of specialized offices. The new manager reports directly to Deputy Secretary of War Stephen Feinberg and covers the land, sea, and air domains.

Background

The Pentagon has bought unmanned systems through many separate channels for years. The Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps each ran their own drone and autonomy programs, while the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) pursued commercial systems, Joint Interagency Task Force 401 (JIATF-401) handled specific unmanned missions, and the Defense Autonomous Warfare Group (DAWG) added another line of effort. That structure produced overlapping requirements, competing acquisition tracks, and no single official accountable for how the department fields autonomy at scale.

The memorandum ties the reorganization to a series of 2025 executive orders, including Executive Order 14307, "Unleashing American Drone Dominance," and a July 2025 memo committing to expand the U.S. drone manufacturing base and arm units with low-cost systems. Hegseth frames speed as the central problem. The memo states that adversaries "collectively produce millions of unmanned systems each year across all domains," and that while "global military unmanned systems production has skyrocketed over the last three years, the United States has been slow to field these capabilities at scale," calling drones and autonomous systems "the most consequential battlefield innovation of this generation." The memo treats fragmentation as the central obstacle to fielding at scale and answers it by naming one office to own funding, acquisition, and policy for the mission set. The move was reported July 1 and 2 by DefenseScoop and USNI News, and the signed memorandum was posted publicly by the department.

Key Details

The memorandum gives DRPM-UxS directive authority over the Pentagon's unmanned aerial systems (groups 1-3), surface vessels, underwater vessels, and ground systems, plus counter-unmanned systems, autonomy and swarming software, and logistics support, rather than a single service's portfolio. The authority carves out current Major Defense Acquisition Programs and the Navy's medium unmanned surface vessel program, which is why the reach is best described as nearly all, not literally all, of the mission set. To build an immediate operational baseline, the memo dual-hats the directors of JIATF-401 and the Defense Autonomous Warfare Group as elements under DRPM-UxS, giving the new office oversight of their missions and programmatic funding lines.

On reporting, the manager sits directly under Deputy Secretary Feinberg rather than inside a service acquisition chain. The memo states that on acquisition matters for unmanned systems programs, the DRPM-UxS takes precedence after only the Secretary of War and the Deputy Secretary, and it designates the office as milestone decision authority for programs in the portfolio. It also carries budget authority: the manager gets oversight and authoritative direction over the programming, planning, and budgeting of unmanned programs, with disputes to be resolved by the Deputy Secretary. On the technical side, the memo makes DRPM-UxS responsible for enforcing joint standards, including Modular Open Systems Architecture and the Open Mission Systems/Universal Command and Control Interface, across all unmanned systems in the department, and it can direct contracting activities to use streamlined tools such as Other Transaction Authorities and Commercial Solutions Openings to speed capability delivery.

The scope spans land, sea, and air unmanned and autonomous systems. By naming the office the "single joint integrator," the department signals that requirements, budgets, and program direction for these systems are meant to route through one manager instead of being negotiated among services and innovation shops. Notably, DIU is retained rather than absorbed: the memo keeps it as the primary industry engagement interface for programs inside the DRPM-UxS portfolio. That reach across acquisition, policy, and dollars is what distinguishes DRPM-UxS from earlier task forces and coordination bodies that lacked direct budget authority. The memo directs the office to define the full program baseline, identifying every existing Service and Component program that will fall under its purview, within 90 days.

What It Means for Contractors

For companies building drones, counter-drone systems, autonomy software, and enabling components, the reorganization changes where decisions get made. Work that vendors previously pitched to individual services or to Joint Interagency Task Force 401 now routes through a single portfolio manager, and DIU continues as the government's commercial front door for systems inside that portfolio. Firms that mapped their business development around service-specific program offices will need to identify how those requirements migrate into the DRPM-UxS structure and who inside it controls the relevant funding lines.

The executive-order push behind the memo points to sustained demand. The underlying orders direct the department to procure and field low-cost, U.S.-made drones at scale, and the memo gives DRPM-UxS authority to determine when systems are ready for mass production, signaling repeat, high-volume procurement rather than one-off prototype buys. That favors vendors that can demonstrate manufacturing capacity, supply-chain depth, and the ability to hit delivery schedules. The memo's emphasis on open-architecture standards also rewards products that can plug into common interfaces rather than locking the government into proprietary stacks. Small-drone makers, subsystem suppliers, and autonomy-software providers all sit inside that pipeline.

Consolidation carries risk as well as opportunity. Routing acquisition through one office can compress timelines and cut duplicative requirements, but it also concentrates gatekeeping: a single manager's priorities will shape which programs advance and which get folded or cut. Companies whose products were funded through a specific service line should watch for how those efforts are re-baselined under the new manager, since the memo's 90-day program review is likely to trigger exactly that kind of portfolio scrub. Vendors that track the DRPM-UxS standup early, align proposals to the joint-integrator model, and show they can produce at scale are best positioned as the department shifts from scattered buys to a centralized autonomy enterprise. The full memorandum, posted by the department, is the authoritative reference for the office's authorities and reporting lines.

Sources