Drones are Bullets, Not Bombs: A Paradigm Shift in Attritable Warfare

The recent viral meme of Pete Hegseth declaring 'Drones are bullets, not bombs' perfectly encapsulates a fundamental, and frankly overdue, shift in military doctrine. For too long, we've treated unmanned systems like miniature aircraft—precious, high-value assets to be recovered and reused. This is a critical error in judgment. The true power of drones in a near-peer conflict lies not in their ubiquity. They are not bombs to be dropped; they are the bullets we must be prepared to fire in overwhelming volumes.

The recent viral meme of Pete Hegseth declaring 'Drones are bullets, not bombs' perfectly encapsulates a fundamental, and frankly overdue, shift in military doctrine. For too long, we've treated unmanned systems like miniature aircraft—precious, high-value assets to be recovered and reused. This is a critical error in judgment. The true power of drones in a near-peer conflict lies not in their ubiquity. They are not bombs to be dropped; they are the bullets we must be prepared to fire in overwhelming volumes. This isn't just semantics; it's a complete reframing of logistics, manufacturing, and tactical deployment that will define the next generation of warfare.

This paradigm shift demands a radical rethinking of our industrial base. A bullet factory doesn't build a few perfect rounds per day; it churns out millions. We must apply the same mass-production ethos to attritable drones. This means embracing automated manufacturing, simplifying designs for rapid assembly, and building a supply chain that can withstand the voracious appetite of a high-intensity conflict. The exquisite, gold-plated drone that takes months to build is a liability when the battlespace consumes thousands of units per day. The future belongs to the side that can put the most sensors and effectors in the air, period.

From a tactical perspective, treating drones as ammunition unlocks new operational concepts. Swarms are no longer just coordinated groups; they become a salvo, capable of saturating enemy air defenses and overwhelming their decision-making cycle. An individual drone's loss becomes tactically insignificant, so long as the swarm achieves its objective. This allows for more aggressive, high-risk maneuvers that would be unthinkable with expensive, non-expendable assets. We can probe enemy defenses, force them to reveal their positions, and trade a thousand-dollar drone for a multi-million-dollar air defense system. That is a winning equation.

This concept extends to every domain. Small, autonomous underwater vehicles can be deployed en masse to create vast, distributed sensor networks. Unmanned ground vehicles can be used for high-risk reconnaissance and deception missions. When you stop worrying about getting every single asset back, you start thinking about what they can achieve when you're willing to lose them. It's a mental shift from asset preservation to mission accomplishment at all costs.

At ROE Defense, we are building the systems that will enable this new reality. Our focus is on creating low-cost, high-performance drones that are designed for mass production. We are developing the AI and swarming algorithms that will allow these systems to operate as a cohesive force. The Hegseth meme may have been a joke to some, but to us, it's a mission statement. We're not just building drones; we're building the bullets for the 21st-century battlefield. And we plan to build a lot of them.