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European Tech Sovereignty
19APR

Gauntlet II confirmed for August 2026

1 min read
17:00UTC

The next competitive drone trial will test 50,000 to 60,000 drones against live electronic warfare. Vendors that fail the red team get eliminated.

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Key takeaway

Gauntlet II will eliminate drone vendors whose systems cannot survive electronic warfare.

The Pentagon confirmed Gauntlet II for August 2026 at an undisclosed location described as "brutally hot."⁠1 The exercise will target procurement of 50,000 to 60,000 additional drones, with JIATF-401 running a live counter-UAS red team using GPS jamming, communications denial, and electronic warfare.

Phase I delivered 30,000 one-way attack drones from 11 vendors at roughly $5,000 per unit. Phase II raises the stakes: drones that cannot survive contested electromagnetic environments will be eliminated from the programme. The total target remains 300,000 or more drones by 2027 under a $1.1 billion budget. Two additional Gauntlets are planned beyond Phase II. Skycutter's 99.3/100 Gauntlet I score will mean nothing if its design cannot withstand active jamming.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

In August the Pentagon will hold a competition where it attacks participating drones with GPS jamming and communications disruption while trying to shoot them down with counter-drone systems. Drones that survive this electronic warfare gauntlet will be selected for bulk orders of 50,000 to 60,000 units. Drones that fail simply leave the programme. This is a significant escalation from Phase I, which tested basic performance. Phase II tests whether drones can actually operate in war conditions. Skycutter won Phase I with a near-perfect score, but that test did not include active electronic warfare.

What could happen next?
  • Consequence

    Gauntlet II's EW survivability requirement will eliminate a significant proportion of Phase I qualifiers, concentrating procurement among a smaller number of technically advanced vendors.

    Short term · High
  • Opportunity

    Vendors that pass Gauntlet II gain preferred supplier status for up to 300,000 drones, representing a multi-year contract pipeline worth hundreds of millions.

    Medium term · High
  • Precedent

    The Gauntlet model, using live adversarial testing to down-select vendors, will become the standard for all US military drone procurement and will be adopted by allied nations.

    Long term · Medium
Sources:Breaking Defense
Mentions:JIATF-401 →Pentagon →Drone Dominance →Gauntlet II →Gauntlet I →
First Reported In

Update #3 · Anduril wins $20 billion counter-drone deal

Breaking Defense· 30 Mar 2026
Read original →
Causes and effects
This Event
Gauntlet II confirmed for August 2026
Introduces survivability in contested electromagnetic environments as a hard filter for mass drone procurement.
Led to
LUCAS Enters Combat With Dozens in Stock
LUCAS's combat debut with 'dozens' against a 300,000-drone target set by Gauntlet accelerated urgency for mass production ahead of Gauntlet II.
Occurred 28 Feb 2026
Read story →
Lethality Prize feeds Gauntlet II cycle
Gauntlet II confirmation with its 50,000-60,000 drone Phase II target created the Lethality Prize Challenge as the payload qualification mechanism.
Occurred 14 Apr 2026
Read story →
Pentagon DAWG line jumps to $54.6bn
The Gauntlet II 50,000-60,000 drone target established the procurement scale that DAWG's $54.6B request is now sized to fund.
Occurred 21 Apr 2026
Read story →
Mountain Horse wins first Lethality Prize
Gauntlet II's August 2026 timeline and 50,000-drone target created the Lethality Prize programme whose first winner Mountain Horse Solutions is.
Occurred 29 Apr 2026
Read story →
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Written with AI from Lowdown's published reporting. Not individually reviewed by an editor. Editorial standards.