Pentagon chief says US has learnt a great deal from Ukraine about drones

May 30, 2026 - 15:10

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said that the United States is using lessons learned from Ukraine's experience with drones on the battlefield.

Source: Hegseth speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue security summit in Singapore, as reported by European Pravda

Details: Hegseth acknowledged that Washington is studying Ukraine's experience of using drones in combat and is focused on expanding its own capabilities in this field.

Quote: "What you'll see in President Trump's 2027 budget is US$56 billion in investment in drone dominance. And continuing to learn from what Ukraine has done on the battlefield, it's not about having the exquisite systems, it's the ability to scale it, scale it quickly, while adapting week after week. That's how quickly drone technology adapts."

Details: Hegseth noted that drone technology is an "absolute focus" for the US.

Quote: "We have to do both: have the exquisite systems that can do what only America can do on autonomy, but also that attritable component, which has been so effective on both sides, but we've learned so much from Ukraine and how they operate."

Background:

In April, Reuters reported that the US military had adopted Ukrainian counter-drone technology at the Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia in an effort to stop Iranian drone attacks.
Those reports followed comments by US President Donald Trump, who said that the US doesn't need Ukraine's assistance to shoot down Iranian drones in the Middle East.
Trump also described the assistance Ukraine provides to Middle Eastern countries as "political PR" by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
On 5 March, Zelenskyy said that Ukraine had received a request from the US for support in defending against Shahed attack drones used by Iran against countries in the Middle East.