America is doing everything to replenish its depleted drone stockpiles
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.
Private drone companies without existing government contracts can now request access to the US Army test ranges nationwide.
The arrangement removes a requirement for companies to have existing government partnerships before requesting access to military ranges.
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll framed the change as an effort to cut through bureaucratic obstacles facing smaller defense contractors.
Five ranges now fall under this new access system, spanning four US states and one overseas location.
Dugway Proving Ground in Utah specializes in long-range fires testing for companies developing precision strike capabilities, whilst West Cibola Range in Arizona currently focuses exclusively on drone and counter-drone system evaluations.
Camp Shelby in Mississippi and Camp Grayling in Michigan round out the domestic testing locations available.
The fifth site, the Africa Multidomain Training and Experimentation Center, sits in Morocco.
Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed!
Beginning in September 2026, Camp Grayling will host a recurring test simulating degraded electromagnetic conditions found in Ukraine.
This quarterly event will let companies trial drone and counter-drone systems against jamming and disrupted signals.
To get access to any of these sites, companies will have to apply through testrange.army.mil, though the Army cannot guarantee a specific site or timeline.
"A company with a good idea shouldn't need a team of lawyers and a program of record just to prove their equipment works," said Dan Driscoll, Army Secretary.
"So we fixed that. One front door — testrange.army.mil — a real person to walk you in, and on the other side, everything the modern battlefield demands: contested airspace, degraded signals and the space to test at real scale."
