The Department of War has issued a memorandum to speed up how the US military fields counter-unmanned aircraft systems (c-UAS). The policy, titled Accelerating Employment of Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems to Protect American Airspace Sovereignty, tells commanders to remove unnecessary barriers that delay these capabilities for forces, installations and assets, according to the Department of War.
Delays treated as operational risk
Approval authorities must now treat delay as an operational risk. They must also reuse prior approvals, test data and risk mitigations to speed up comparable decisions. Where testing shows low or manageable risk, they can issue interim, conditional or time-bound approvals.
Officials must document any denial of a c-UAS request with a rationale and send it to Joint Interagency Task Force-401 (JIATF-401). Every approval barrier needs a named owner, a timeline and an escalation path. If an approval authority fails to act within 30 days, the requestor must notify the office of the Secretary of War.
Four barriers targeted
The memorandum addresses four bottlenecks:
- Authorities to operate: Within 30 days, the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer will work with the Department’s Chief Information Officer (CIO) to create a single, Department-wide c-UAS process. The aim is to cut approval times for tested and validated systems from months to days or weeks.
- Spectrum certification: The CIO will review the spectrum-request process and recommend ways to accelerate approvals. The Department will also back the Defense Innovation Unit’s Project Spectrum Strike, an AI-driven tool that coordinates, authorises and deconflicts US government radio spectrum use.
- Weapons safety: Services will not repeat a safety review for the same system, configuration and use case unless a material change creates new risk. JIATF-401 will align these reviews with the Unmanned Systems Direct Reporting Portfolio Manager.
- Legal reviews: Reviews of c-UAS weapons will generally conclude within 10 days of receiving the necessary information. Components will share completed reviews to support consistent decisions.
Existing limits remain
The memorandum leaves current policies governing operational c-UAS use unchanged, including activities under 10 U.S.C. § 130i. It does not authorise violations of law or compromises to public or Service member safety.
Learn more on the U.S. DoW website
