General Cherry Advances to Final Stage of Pentagon Drone Selection Program

The Ukrainian company General Cherry has been included in the list of 19 companies selected to participate in Gauntlet II.

This is the second phase of the second competition under the large-scale U.S. Drone Dominance Program (DDP), the company told Militarnyi.

The Phase 2 Qualifier tests took place on June 8-19 in the United States.

The initial tests were conducted at Camp Grayling, a specialized military training range located in Michigan. A total of 49 unmanned aerial system developers from around the world competed to advance to the next stage of the selection process.

The testing phases known as Phase 2 Qualifier and Gauntlet II are two separate and sequential levels of evaluation within the Drone Dominance Program. The main difference between these tests is the approach to piloting and evaluation.

During the initial qualification round, the unmanned aerial vehicles are piloted directly by representatives of the developer companies.

In contrast, the Gauntlet II stage is positioned as the final combat test of the proposed technology’s reliability. The main feature of this phase is that the U.S. military conducts the capability assessment.

During the June qualification round, all contest participants had to demonstrate the combat effectiveness of their own designs. The organizers tested the drones’ operational stability in both daytime and nighttime conditions.

The aircraft were tested within the framework of two specific mission categories. The first type of mission, Long Range Strike, involved testing the drones’ long-range strikes capability.

The second type of mission was called “Tactical Assault in Confined Environments.” This category focused on tactical assault tasks and drone maneuvering in confined spaces.

The final Gauntlet II tests are scheduled to begin in August 2026. Fort Carson, a military base located in Colorado, was selected as the venue for the final tests. Upon completion of this phase, the DDP organizers plan to move on to the stage of signing official agreements with the competition leaders.

The Pentagon intends to award major contracts for the supply of up to 60,000 drones to the manufacturers whose technology demonstrates the best results.