The Pentagon is scrapping its old playbook for defending against small drones, moving beyond years of evaluations and studies toward a model that comes with new money and authority geared to field capability faster, according to a Thursday memo from the defense secretary.

The directive from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the formation of the Joint Interagency Task Force 401 (JIATF 401) to “better align authorities and resources to rapidly deliver [joint counter-small unmanned aircraft system] capabilities to America’s warfighters, defeat adversary threats and promote sovereignty over national airspace,” the memo states.

Hegseth also directed the Army secretary to disestablish the Joint Counter-small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Office, or JCO, which was created in 2019 and led b

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