Ukrainian company General Cherry advances to the second stage of the Pentagon program’s second competition

Ukrainian defense-tech company General Cherry has been selected among the 19 companies advancing to Gauntlet II, the second stage of the second competition within the U.S. Drone Dominance Program (DDP).

The decision was made following the Phase 2 Qualifier, which took place from June 8 to June 19, 2026, at Camp Grayling, Michigan (USA). A total of 49 drone manufacturers from around the world participated in the evaluation.

Phase 2 Qualifier and Gauntlet II are two distinct testing stages within Phase 2 of the Drone Dominance Program. The key difference is that the Qualifier is an initial technical screening in which the drones are operated by their developers, while Gauntlet II is a final operational evaluation in which the systems are assessed by military personnel.

During the qualifying stage, participants demonstrated their systems’ capabilities in both daytime and nighttime conditions across two mission categories:

• Long Range Strike
• Tactical Assault in Confined Environments

The next stage, Gauntlet II, is scheduled for August 2026 at Fort Carson, Colorado.

To qualify for the final evaluation, all selected companies must complete a production challenge: manufacture and deliver 120 drones equipped with lethality payloads within five weeks. Each manufacturer is paired with one or more lethality-module providers selected through the separate DDP Lethality Prize Challenge.

Following Gauntlet II, the organizers of the Drone Dominance Program plan to award contracts for up to 60,000 drones to the companies that achieve the best results in the final trials.

General Cherry’s advancement to the second stage of the second DDP competition is an important validation of the competitiveness of Ukrainian unmanned technologies on the international market and gives the company an opportunity to compete for contracts in the U.S. unmanned systems sector.