December 3, 2025 (Washington, DC) - Today, Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) announces the formal transition of the Department’s first vetted UAS list, the Blue UAS Cleared List over to the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA). Created by DIU, the Blue UAS Cleared List contains commercial drones that have undergone security and performance assessments for UAS by the Department of War and government agencies. The Blue List and its related assets will officially transition on December 3, 2025, ahead of the original January 1st deadline and in alignment with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth's directive to achieve "small UAS domain dominance" by the end of 2027.
This transition is a crucial step in addressing the need to scale secure drone procurement for the U.S. military. Secretary Hegseth initiated this change through his July 2025 "Unleashing U.S. Military Drone Dominance" memo to accelerate the safe commercialization of drone technologies and fully integrate UAS into the National Airspace System. The Blue List aims to move from a certification program into a true marketplace where servicemembers can rapidly acquire trusted drone technology.
"Since the launch of Blue UAS List five years ago, the importance of drones on the modern battlefield continues to grow - as the War in Ukraine makes clear,” said David Payne, Director of DIU’s Autonomy Portfolio. “Drones are an essential part of a modern warfighter’s kit, and we need an easy way to buy trusted, cutting-edge drone technology from a rapidly expanding industrial base.“
As part of the handoff, Blue UAS List management will move from DIU's headquarters in Mountain View, California, to DCMA's new Unmanned Systems–Experimental Command, or US-X, at Palmdale, California, led by Air Force Col. Dustin Thomas, US-X commander. All related online resources will now be available on the DCMA Blue List website.
“It has been a pleasure partnering with DIU on the Blue List transition. DIU built the foundation, and DCMA is expanding and scaling that innovation to reshape how the Department delivers capability to our warfighters faster and smarter,” said Col. Thomas.
The Blue UAS transition includes all stakeholders in the drone ecosystem, including the 81 unique companies DIU has processed onto the Blue List to date, established partnerships with military units seeking secure, operational platforms, and the cohort of Recognized Assessors, a group of third-party organizations evaluating drone platforms and related components for compliance with NDAA. DIU will continue as a partner to Blue UAS, providing expertise to shape standards and update checklists, while DCMA will assume primary responsibility for list management and expansion.
Launched in 2020, the Blue UAS List is the DoW's trusted catalog of secure, NDAA-compliant drones and components, and the digital Blue List platform will remain accessible to all authorized users regardless of location, maintaining accessibility for warfighters and procurement officials.
As of November 19, 2025 the Blue UAS List has provided over 39 certified Blue UAS systems and 165 components for users across the Department and U.S. Government. The Blue UAS effort will continue its holistic and continuous approach in rapidly vetting commercial unmanned aerial systems to ensure compliance with the NDAA and other applicable policy.