Fort Carson
US Army post in Colorado hosting the Pentagon's August 2026 Gauntlet II drone live-fire test
Last refreshed: 14 July 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
Timeline for Fort Carson
Hosted the Gauntlet II finalists' five-week build sprint
Drones: Industry & Defence: Gauntlet II sets five-week build sprintPentagon orders 120 drones in five weeks
Drones: Industry & DefenceWhere is Fort Carson located?
Why is Fort Carson hosting Gauntlet II?
How many drones will Gauntlet II finalists build at Fort Carson?
Background
Fort Carson, a roughly 137,000-acre US Army post near Colorado Springs and home of the 4th Infantry Division, is set to host the Pentagon's Gauntlet II live-fire test in August 2026. The 19 finalist companies that survived the programme's Camp Grayling elimination round each have about five weeks to build 120 lethality-payload drones before the demonstration .
Established in 1942 as Camp Carson and made permanent after the Second World War, the post has long served as a major manoeuvre and training ground given Colorado's varied terrain and altitude. Its selection for Gauntlet II's live-fire puts a decades-old training base at the centre of the Pentagon's newest drone procurement competition.
The stakes are large: officials expect to order 50,000 to 60,000 additional drones from whichever companies perform best at Fort Carson, turning what has traditionally been a routine training venue into the proving ground for a mass drone procurement decision.