Legislation led by U.S. Rep. Pat Harrigan (R-NC) on Sept. 2 would require the U.S. Secretary of Defense to establish and carry out a program that would enable the rapid development, testing, and scalable manufacture of small unmanned aircraft systems.
“China and Russia are flooding the battlefield with millions of drones while America has sat on its hands. More than 80 percent of casualties in modern war now come from drones, yet we still have no capacity to build them at scale,” Rep. Harrigan said. “That failure is reckless, and it leaves our troops exposed.”
Rep. Harrigan sponsored the SkyFoundry Act of 2025, H.R. 5086, to ensure the United States has a drone development program to scale them up to deter and defeat the nation’s adversaries.
“This bill creates the capacity to design, test, and build a million drones a year right here in America,” he said. “It cuts China out of our supply chains, it arms our troops with what they need to dominate, and it makes clear we will never again let our enemies outproduce us in the weapons that decide wars.”
By combining rapid research and development with high-volume production inside the U.S. Army’s existing industrial base, the congressman said that H.R. 5086 would deliver the speed and scale America’s warfighters need while bypassing delays caused by traditional contracting and procurement red tape.
According to his staff, Rep. Harrigan earlier this year secured language in the fiscal year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act to begin laying the groundwork for SkyFoundry.
The introduction of H.R. 5086 takes the next step to lock the program into permanent law and would ensure that the U.S. is prepared for drone warfare.
Rep. Harrigan is calling on his colleagues to cosponsor the SkyFoundry Act, which has been referred for consideration to both the U.S. House Armed Services Committee and the U.S. House Financial Services Committee.