The Department of Defense’s Drone Dominance initiative represents a fundamental shift in how unmanned systems will be acquired, scaled, and fielded. While public attention often centers on platforms and mission capability, the structure of the program points to a more decisive factor:
Success depends on a production-ready, secure, affordable and scalable defense manufacturing supply chain.
For companies delivering complete drone systems and the suppliers that support them, Drone Dominance brings manufacturing execution into focus earlier than many expect.
Drone Dominance is designed to compress timelines between development, production, and deployment. The program framework emphasizes:
The structure of the program and its participation requirements make clear that the government expects ready, executable systems at the platform level. That expectation raises the bar not only for OEMs and system integrators, but also for the suppliers responsible for producing critical components at scale.
Design maturity alone is no longer sufficient. Execution credibility now extends across the supply chain.
Organizations pursuing Drone Dominance opportunities face a shared set of manufacturing challenges, regardless of whether they are building complete systems or supplying components:
• Scaling airframes, housings, enclosures, and structural components from prototypes to volume
• Ensuring domestic sourcing, documentation, and compliance across multiple vendors
• Maintaining repeatability, inspection rigor, and quality under aggressive schedules
• Adapting designs for manufacturability without slowing proposal timelines
System-level manufacturers depend on suppliers to execute reliably, while suppliers are increasingly expected to operate at defense-grade standards from the outset.
For programs like Drone Dominance, manufacturing is not a post-award concern. It is a proposal-stage risk factor.
Organizations preparing submissions are evaluated not only on performance claims, but on execution readiness across their supply base. That evaluation increasingly includes questions such as:
The Department of Defense has been explicit about expectations around scale, delivery readiness, and vendor preparedness as part of the Drone Dominance framework. For reference, the official program overview and participation details are available at dronedominance.mil.
For system builders, this means supplier strategy is part of the proposal narrative.
For suppliers, it means readiness is being evaluated earlier and more quietly than ever before.
Stratasys and Stratasys Direct can offer compliant, comprehensive solutions that reduce risk by converting design intent into repeatable, compliant production under real-world constraints.
This includes:
For Drone Dominance participants, these capabilities directly influence execution credibility.
Our role is to enable execution across the defense manufacturing supply chain. We have been doing so for decades across dozens of uncrewed as well as munition platforms
We support defense and aerospace organizations that are:
For system-level manufacturers, this reduces execution risk by manufacturing parts on production AM platforms designed, built, and operated by Stratasys, to proven high MRL and TRL systems.
Numerous examples exist across the DoW, but two notable ones are the USN NAVAIRs acquisition of 20 F900 systems, as well as our recent support to the Trident Warrior 2025 exercise, where we printed parts in support of three different platforms (aircraft, helicopter and VTOL platform).For suppliers, it provides access to controlled, defense-aligned production capacity that is owned and governed by the same organization responsible for the underlying technology.
Drone Dominance is a manufacturing challenge disguised as a drone program.
Design innovation remains essential, and we are happy to help, but execution determines who can scale, deliver, and sustain. Manufacturing readiness, supplier reliability, and production discipline are now evaluated across the entire ecosystem, and SDM can prove to you our decades of performance to DoW, defense primes, and even drone startups
Organizations that address these realities early, whether as system builders or suppliers, will be better positioned to compete. Those who treat manufacturing as a downstream problem may discover too late that execution risk has already been assessed.
With nearly two decades in the 3D printing industry, Eric has played a pivotal role in both the hardware and services sides of Stratasys. His deep expertise in FDM and PolyJet technologies has taken him from engineering and product management to his current leadership in digital marketing, where he drives SEO, content strategy, paid advertising, and web development for Stratasys Direct. Beyond marketing, Eric has extensive hands-on experience in additive manufacturing, from optimizing 3D printing processes to designing functional prototypes, sales samples, and custom parts for both industrial and personal applications.
