The Pentagon’s rush to acquire low-cost drones is taking flight with the naming of 11 companies that survived its first-ever Gauntlet challenge, with the winners tapped to develop prototypes for the U.S. military. The biggest surprise of the competition is that the best performing drone was one from an unheralded United Kingdom start-up, a result that signals how far the U.S. military lags behind when it comes to cheap, expendable drone fleets.

The Pentagon’s Drone Dominance initiative is designed to accelerate the $150 million development of 30,000 low-cost, expendable drones. The competition was expected to highlight American tech expertise. However, the strong performance of the UK’s Skycutter suggests American capabilities are in a catch-up mode. Skycutter scored an impressive 99.3 out of 100 while American runner-up Neros was 11.8 points behind.

Gauntlet ranked participants according to how successfully they completed assigned “missions.” Mission 1 focused on long-range strike capabilities at a variety of distances. Skycutter finished tops and its energy endurance strength, often a weak link in drones, was likely a big factor.

Mission 2 required a simultaneous strike on two outdoor targets, followed by an indoor strike. Neros finished first in this category with Skycutter claiming the second spot. Among the factors noted by testers is the ease of use by operators. Mission 3 addressed kinetic strike ability but Pentagon did not post scores for this category. A target price tag is $5,000 per unit as is a reduction in development timetables.

The top 11 companies following behind Skycutter and Neros were: Napatree, Modal AI, Auterion, Ukrainian Defense Drones (UDD), Griffon Aerospace, Nokturnal AI, Halo Aeronautics, Accent Aerosystem, and Farage Precision. Napatree finished third with a score of 80.3. The remainder scored in the 70s with less than three points separating them. The sixth-place finish of UDD speaks to Ukraine’s hard-won drone expertise. Fifteen companies didn’t make the cut but just like the America’s Got Talent TV show, they were encouraged to try again.

The Pentagon emphasizes the Gauntlet initiative, which will have a second and third stage at six-month intervals, is “not a statement about the best drones in the industry or even the best drones in America. It is a snapshot of how the invited vendors performed against mission vignettes designed by warfighters. We are not buying drones based on paper requirements. We are buying drones based on how they performed in missions.”

Undoubtedly, need also is a consideration. Third-place finisher Napatree is known for its Merops anti-drone interceptor which has already racked up over 1,000 drone kills in Ukraine. The U.S. Army is sending Merops systems to the Middle East to counter Iran’s use of Shahed-type drones that have caused widespread havoc across several countries and which were responsible for the first six deaths of U.S. soldiers in the opening hours of the conflict. The Pentagon also has deployed its $35,000 LUCAS drone, an operational first, which is essentially a Shahed copy although it lacks the range of many of Iran’s Shahed variants.

There is currently a scramble for low-cost drone interceptors. Gulf nations like Qatar, UAE and Kuwait are seeking to supplement their own home-grown drone interceptors by buying thousands of relatively low-cost drone interceptors from companies like TAF Industries in Ukraine. The company’s automatic targeting Octopus-100 and manually controlled Kolibri-i10 are considered among the most effective drone interceptors due to their battle-tested track record in countering Russian drones, many of which are Shahed derivatives. Other Ukrainian drone interceptors with a reputation include General Cherry’s Bullet model, the 3D-printed P1-Sun from Skyfall and the Sting (with close to 4,000 confirmed kills) from the colorfully named Wild Hornets. Skyfall alone claims it makes 50,000 drone interceptors per month with between 5,000 and 10,000 available for export.

Also seeing widespread use in Ukraine are drone interceptors made by Tallinn-based Swift Beat, a low-profile operation with an aura of mystery linked to former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and praised for its AI targeting tech which can identify enemy drones even at night. Ukraine’s drone interceptors can fly at speeds of up to 300 kilometers per hour and use AI-enabled tracking systems to kinetically destroy targets

The U.S. also reportedly has requested Ukrainian anti-drone support but details are classified although Ukrainian president Zelensky hints he’d like an IOU for Patriot missiles. The case is an economic one: an Iranian Shahed drone clocks in at about $30,000 to $50,000 while Ukraine’s drone interceptors range from $1,000 to $2,000, way less expensive than many of the missiles currently used to defeat drones. The financial worst case scenario is using a Patriot missile that costs millions of dollars whose use may lead to stockpile issues.

In addition, a Shahed drone can cause damage that far exceeds its own cost. For example, a single Shahed reportedly destroyed a $300 million radar site in Bahrain. Ukraine’s expertise is formidable: the country reportedly has an excess drone interceptor manufacturing capacity despite the requirements needed to battle Russia. The irony, of course, is that Ukraine is now an acknowledged leader in an industry it had no desire to be in.