The marketplace was developed by the Joint Interagency Task Force 401, or JIATF 401, which leads the Defense Department’s effort to connect government agencies with companies developing counter-drone technology.

U.S. Army Maj. Mike Hapner, the C-UAS marketplace lead for JIATF 401, said the marketplace is intended to deliver “the right counter-UAS capabilities to the right users at the right time.”

Promotional materials make the marketplace look like a basic e-commerce website, but it is designed to do more than simply catalog products.

According to Kaizen Laboratories, which JIATF 401 contracted to build the platform, buyers can browse, filter and search products based on specific tactical needs, evaluate system performance data and submit acquisition requests.

Nikhil Reddy, Kaizen’s co-founder and chief executive officer, described the platform as “first-class digital tools that move with the threat environment, not behind it” and “a win for the entire defense ecosystem.”

JIATF 401 awarded Kaizen a $15 million contract to build the marketplace in May 2026 through an Other Transaction Agreement, a contracting mechanism often used to accelerate the development and acquisition of new technology.

Although the website is live, access is limited to approved buyers and sellers. According to the marketplace website, eligible buyers include federal procurement officers, military commands and pre-cleared allied or partner-nation defense ministries.

Vendors, meanwhile, must apply and complete a vetting process that allows program staff to verify their businesses, review export controls and evaluate their products. Once approved, vendors can publish listings and respond to buyer inquiries.

The marketplace is part of the Defense Department’s effort to streamline the acquisition of drone-related technology, and is its second sales platform.

In 2020, the department launched the Blue UAS List to catalog approved drones and drone components, giving military units an easier way to acquire systems without going through the lengthy procurement process typically associated with new equipment.

Then, alongside the Drone Dominance program, an effort to invest $1.1 billion to boost the commercial drone industry in the United States, the Defense Department revamped the Blue UAS List to encourage greater procurement of drones.

The counter-UAS marketplace takes a similar approach but focuses on the technology needed to defeat drones rather than operate them.

Brig. Gen. Matt Ross, the director of JIATF 401, called the marketplace necessary because “drones are a defining threat of our time.”

“The proliferation of small systems and small drones and the threat that they pose both to critical infrastructure and to defense critical assets requires us to move faster in this space,” he said.

Phillip “Donna” Smith, the Lift Challenge program manager and a lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps Reserve, said that multirotor drones are limited in their usability because of their low payload-to-weight ratios, meaning they can only transport a payload equal to or less than their own weight.

“This means as payload requirements increase, so does the size and the cost of the drone,” he said. “With the Lift Challenge, our goal is to dramatically increase the useful load, which will then drive down the cost per pound of transported cargo.”

He described heavy vertical flight as the “next great technological inflection point that is economical for widespread adoption,” comparing its potential impact to the assembly line for automobiles and reusable rockets for spaceflight. He added that it could revolutionize industries like agriculture, logistics, construction, and more.

The competition aligns with the Defense Department’s Drone Dominance initiative, which aims to accelerate drone technology and reduce costs.

While Drone Dominance challenges a company’s ability to scale production, DARPA is open to anyone who can build a drone that meets the minimum standards.

The Lift Challenge has attracted more than 100 competitors for drones, ranging from drone manufacturers to engineers to academics to hobbyists.

One participant, YouTuber Hoarder Sam, who documents his DIY drone projects, said the challenge appealed to him because of its ambitious goal.

Sam recalled watching DARPA’s self-driving car challenge years before autonomous vehicles became commercially viable and said the Lift Challenge struck him in much the same way.

Competitors must build a drone capable of non-assisted vertical takeoff that weighs less than 55 pounds. During the competition, the drones will have to pick up a minimum payload of 110 pounds and move it back and forth on a 1,000-foot course 30 times, or five nautical miles, in less than 30 minutes.

“Carrying this much weight for that far of a distance isn’t going to be easy, and honestly, I think it might be almost impossible. That’s because DARPA is famous for setting the bar extremely high,” Sam said.

He added that when DARPA first held its self-driving car challenge, no team completed the course. “They had to run the challenge again the next year, and even then, only four cars finished the challenge,” he said.

Others see the challenge as a chance to advance research.

Hao Xu, an associate professor at the University of Nevada, Reno who is leading a team of five engineering students, called the challenge an “interesting opportunity” that will result in a “fruitful discussion among national partners for us to boost Nevada drone R&D and workforce development.”

Some have commercial goals. The Colorado-based company Alpine Combat Systems has been showcasing its design on social media as a way to highlight its products.

In an introduction video, Amanda Barron, who runs the business with her husband Jesus Barron, an Army veteran, said they entered the competition because they want to “network with DARPA and other agencies.”

Jesus Barron added that their “experimental” Samson drone was their “first drone build and it shows what Alpine Combat Systems can do when we put our minds to it.”

The competition begins Aug. 2 at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, and the final four days will open to the public. DARPA will also livestream the event on YouTube beginning Aug. 3.

During the 12-day event at Camp Grayling, Michigan, 49 companies competed across multiple mission sets. Officials evaluated their small unmanned aircraft systems on performance, ease of use and each company’s ability to produce at scale. By the end, 19 companies advanced to the next round of testing, scheduled to begin in August.

The list of finalists offers a snapshot of the rapidly evolving defense drone industry. Nearly all are privately held companies focused on small UASs rather than traditional weapons. About half already have systems on the Defense Department’s Blue UAS Cleared or Blue UAS Select lists, making them easier for military units to purchase. Most are also relatively young: seven were founded within the past 13 years and eight within the past four.

To better understand why the field looks the way it does, Military Times spoke with J.R. Mullis, a retired Air Force contracting officer who founded the defense technology consultancy ellimaC Partners and Watchtower, a nonprofit that connects emerging defense technology companies with military organizations and hosts its own Best Drone Team Competition.

While many of the companies are young, Mullis said they are considerably “more mature” than the average drone startup. More importantly, they are developing technologies the military can field today.

“I mean, they’re able to be deployed right now,” he said.

Mullis said the finalists share less in common than many observers might assume. Rather than competing to build the same aircraft, many are developing different pieces of the same capability, from airframes and sensors to autonomy software.

“If you were to circle all of them and mash them together,” he said, “I think it would make a really good capability.”

Still, the dominance of younger companies reflects a broader shift in how the Pentagon acquires technology.

Mullis said the government has become more willing to identify operational gaps, giving entrepreneurs with specialized expertise an opportunity to build products that directly address military needs.

He pointed to one company competing in Drone Dominance, which he declined to identify by name, describing it as “one of the best ones” in the competition. Founded by what he called a “young founder” with deep technical expertise, the company grew from zero to millions of dollars in revenue in roughly two years by solving a specific problem.

One example from the list of qualifiers is Massachusetts-based Ascent AeroSystems, founded in 2014 by two brothers and a friend who originally set out to build a rugged drone small enough to fit inside a backpack during hiking and rock climbing trips.

The company later adapted its technology for military use and, in 2024, was acquired by California-based Robinson Helicopter, which later formed Robinson Unmanned. Today, Ascent’s Aero Spirit drone appears on the Defense Department’s Blue UAS Cleared list and the company has received more than $2 million in Defense Department contracts.

“Going back years and years, a lot of the defense-tech founders were developing technology based on headlines,” Mullis said. “As the government is more open about what its capability gaps are, the real experts are able to put their hands up and build solutions for it.”

Manufacturing, not innovation, is the biggest hurdle

Coming up with a good idea is only part of the challenge. According to Mullis, the biggest obstacle facing small defense companies isn’t developing technology, but rather, producing enough of it.

A startup may successfully build a prototype, sell a handful of systems and convince the military it has a winning product. But when the government suddenly wants thousands, a small company or startup may lack the manufacturing capacity and capital needed to meet demand.

One example of how companies overcome that hurdle is the partnership between Georgia-based Kinetic Frames and Alabama-based Griffon Aerospace. Kinetic Frames is a relatively young company with a modest public presence — a simple website and Instagram page — while Griffon has received more than $400 million in federal contracts since 2009.

Together, the companies have produced and delivered more than 2,000 drones to the Defense Department, illustrating how smaller innovators can pair with established manufacturers to meet the military’s production demands.

“Scaling in order to meet the needs of the government is, I would say, one of the valleys of death [for a small company],” Mullis added.

Where defense giants fit in

At first glance, Drone Dominance appears to be dominated by startups, but Mullis said that doesn’t mean major defense contractors are ignoring the market.

Many of the industry’s largest “prime” contractors — companies that hold the government’s primary contracts — are already working on similar technologies through existing programs. Because those efforts are often backed by long-term government funding, he said, they don’t need the visibility that comes with participating in a public competition.

“The publicity matters for those small companies,” Mullis said. “It does not matter at all for those primes.”

That doesn’t mean established companies are absent from the competition, though.

Among the current finalists are publicly traded companies such as Kratos Defense & Security Solutions and Red Cat Holdings, both of which have built businesses around unmanned aircraft. Others represent partnerships between established defense manufacturers and newer drone developers, reflecting the increasingly collaborative nature of the market.

Mullis said acquisitions are often a natural outcome for successful startups, rewarding founders while helping proven technologies reach larger production scales.

“It’s good for the whole ecosystem because the founders are being rewarded for solving a problem,” he said, adding, “An acquisition is just an absolute success.”

Building the next generation of defense companies

Mullis said he thinks Drone Dominance is doing more than selecting companies for future contracts. He said the competition reflects a broader shift in defense acquisition by “encouraging and almost forcing collaboration.”

Earlier this year, the Defense Department announced the Drone Dominance Lethality Prize, which paired drone competitors with approved manufacturers capable of supplying standardized explosive payloads for one-way attack drones.

Even companies that fail to win contracts stand to benefit. “The best founders in the world wear failure like a badge of honor,” he said. “If you go to Drone Dominance, you get, if nothing else, real feedback on your technology.”

In an increasingly crowded drone market, that feedback should be considered valuable. “Even if they’re not selected, they’ll have their marching orders and they’ll know what to do to make it better,” Mullis said.

In a joint statement, the Defense Department said the War Force campaign aims to attract “exceptional software engineers to support the nation’s most critical national security missions.”

Emil Michael, the Defense Department’s chief technology officer, described the effort as “a call to action for patriotic forward-deployed engineers.”

He explained that the new hires will support the Defense Department’s AI Acceleration Strategy and “enterprise” projects “to ensure American military technological dominance for generations to come.”

Despite the long-term goals, the job posting for Forward Deployed Engineer says the position will “not to exceed more than two years.”

According to the job posting, those hired as Forward Deployed Engineers will start at the GS-14 pay grade, with salaries beginning at $125,776 annually.

The campaign comes as the Defense Department has experienced a significant decline in its civilian workforce.

According to a recent report by the Government Accountability Office, the department’s workforce dropped from 778,188 employees in December 2024 to 695,248 in January 2026.

Overall, the GAO found the federal government lost 377,722 employees during that period, most of whom left voluntarily.

GAO data also shows the Defense Department lost 24,366 technical employees by the end of fiscal 2025, followed by another 2,787 during the first quarter of fiscal 2026.

Although OPM has a broad definition for the technical occupational group, the Defense Department reportedly lost some 7,600 employees who worked in IT.

In March 2025, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a memo outlining plans to rebuild the department to meet the military’s current and future demands. He said the plan aimed to eliminate redundant and bureaucratic steps through automation and technological solutions.

“The net effect will be a reduction in the number of civilian full-time equivalent positions and increased resources in the areas where we need them most,” Hegseth wrote.

The War Force campaign is part of a broader federal initiative known as US Tech Force, a fellowship program designed to help agencies implement artificial intelligence tools and modernize their technical infrastructure.

Through the program, the federal government has also partnered with private-sector companies to build a pipeline of candidates interested in temporary government service. The initiative aims to hire more than 1,000 people across the federal government.

Applications for the Forward Deployed Engineer positions close at midnight on July 17. The Defense Department expects to begin interviewing candidates later that month and into August.

The Defense Innovation Unit announced in a LinkedIn post last month that the winners — Bravo Ordnance, Kela Technologies, Kraken Kinetics, Mountain Horse Solutions and Northrop Grumman — developed “cost-effective, mass-producible, and easily integrated lethal payloads for small drones.”

According to the program’s Industry Day presentation, military officials reviewed submissions from 17 vendors. Evaluators examined both the payloads themselves and how they interfaced with various Electronic Safe and Arm Devices, or ESADs, as well as their compatibility with drones being considered in the program’s broader competition.

Although the cash prize was just $10,000 — a modest sum compared to the scale of the Pentagon’s investment — the selected designs will be presented to companies participating in the program as “preferred munitions” for one-way attack drones.

Northrop Grumman’s winning design, dubbed the Common UAS Payload, was built to require “no redesigns” and is “ready to integrate and deploy immediately,” according to a statement from Tanya Santers, the company’s director of fuzes and warheads.

The company added that it has invested more than $2 billion over the past several years in technologies and manufacturing facilities to meet the program’s requirements and accelerate delivery timelines.

Unlike Northrop Grumman, which enters the competition with an established defense-industrial base and decades of experience producing munitions for the Pentagon, most of the other winners are relatively young companies hoping to capitalize on the military’s growing demand for drone warfare technology.

The Texas-based Bravo Ordnance launched in 2025 with $3.5 million in venture capital. The company bills itself as capable of creating custom warheads in “two weeks or less.”

Founder Devan Plantamura, a Navy and Army veteran, told GQ magazine that his experience working at military technology startups convinced him the industry focused too heavily on drone platforms and not enough on the weapons they carry.

Without a warhead, he said, an attack drone is “just a flying object.”

The Israeli defense startup Kela Technologies was founded in July 2024 following the Oct. 7 attack as a software company focused on helping Western militaries rapidly integrate commercial technology into existing military systems.

The company quickly attracted backing from Silicon Valley investors as well as IQT, the CIA’s investment arm.

In just two years, Kela has raised roughly $100 million, secured an additional $200 million in financing and earned a reported valuation of $1.2 billion.

Although software integration remains its primary business, Kela was also named a winner of the Lethality Prize. The company reportedly partnered with fellow Israeli defense firm Autonomous Guard, which specializes in border security technology, including drones.

The North Carolina-based Kraken Kinetics was founded in 2023 to manufacture warheads for drone combat. Since then, the company has heavily promoted its Terminus payload, a warhead designed for first-person-view attack drones.

Kraken has demonstrated the system with Army Rangers, Marines and other military units, emphasizing its ability to be quickly attached to commercial drone platforms through its ESAD.

The Colorado-based Mountain Horse Solutions is one of the older companies in the group. Founded in 2014, about a year after its parent company, Global Ordnance, the firm initially focused on personal protective equipment before expanding into military drones in 2025.

That year, Mountain Horse and its partner Rotron Aerospace secured a spot on the Defense Department’s Blue UAS list of approved drone systems.

For the Lethality Prize, Mountain Horse partnered with several other companies to develop a payload system designed to work with “any drone on the market.”

In a statement, Bill Allen, Mountain Horse’s president, called the challenge “exactly the kind of problem set we are built for — delivering adaptable, scalable lethal solutions that keep pace with the lightning-fast evolution of drone warfare.”

The Defense Department launched the Drone Dominance program in July 2025 and in December of that year, revealed a three-phase effort to acquire roughly 300,000 drones by 2028.

For the first phase, the Pentagon invited 26 companies to demonstrate their systems. In the second and current phase, military officials are evaluating 79 drones from 49 companies for both long-range and close-quarters missions.

Over the remaining phases, the Pentagon plans to narrow the field to a select group of vendors. According to Pentagon officials, the goal is to reduce the average cost of a military drone from roughly $5,000 to $2,300.

The third phase of the Drone Dominance program is set to begin around November 2026, with final testing six months after that.

SOCOM spokesman Navy Cmdr. Joe Vermette told Task & Purpose the MRGG-A will completely replace the MK17 SCAR. He added that SOCOM is “pursuing a rapid fielding method” to “multiple (Special Operational Force) components.”

Last August, SOCOM awarded the Iowa-based LMT Defense a 10-year contract to the tune of $92 million for the MRGG-A. At SOCOM’s request, the rifle features a swappable barrel, allowing operators to change between firing 7.62mm and 6.5mm Creedmoor cartridges.

“This thing isn’t just a gun, it’s a deployment package,” said Joe Hajny, an LMT Defense spokesman, about the multi-caliber chambering in an interview with Classic Firearms at this year’s Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade Show.

Hajny added that SOCOM prioritized “the quick barrel change.” He explained the logic is that when SOCOM operators are “out with the partner forces that don’t have access to 6.5, the field environment might switch, they could change the caliber if need be.”

With that, he said an operator can change the barrel in about a minute. As for the barrel itself, Hajny explained that it measures in at 14.5 inches, so the rifle feels more like an M4 carbine but operates like an M110 semi-automatic sniper rifle, which also uses the 7.62 cartridge.

The most notable change is SOCOM’s adoption of the 6.5mm Creedmoor.

SOCOM reportedly began testing the cartridge along with almost two dozen others in 2017 and found that it delivered the best overall performance at ranges 1,000 meters.

“(The MRGG-A) is a big one that I think is going to trickle down to more of your mainline units down the road,” Hajny said.

Other services have also been shifting away from legacy cartridges like 7.62 and 5.56. The Army, for example, has been transitioning to its Next Generation Squad Weapons chambered in 6.8x51mm.

In 2021, SOCOM hosted an assessment event with its partner Special Operations Forces Works, or SOFWERX, to identify small arms weapon systems capable of greater accuracy at ranges past 1,200 meters.

Along with the MRGG-A, SOCOM expressed interest in a new sniper rifle and lightweight machine gun. After years of testing, the organization contracted Geissele Automatics for the MRGG Sniper rifle in 6.5 and Sig Sauer for the LMG-Medium in .338 Norma Magnum.

In a recent interview with The War Zone, Lt. Col. Alan Wood, SOCOM’s program manager for lethality, explained that like the 6.5mm, the .338 is “more effective on target” at “greater ranges” and the system overall — the rifle and ammo — could weigh “hundreds of pounds” less than the heavy .50-caliber round. Yet, SOCOM has paused fielding on the LMG.

As for the MRGG-A, Wood said, “It’s just a phenomenal, accurate weapon system for our SOF operators. All the components are super excited about this one.”

Garrett Smith, Reveal’s chief executive officer, explained that the “milestone represents years of partnership” needed to develop the technology.

“Identifi ensures that biometric identification and verification remain accessible, secure and mission-ready across the spectrum of operations,” he said.

The Identifi tool is an application programmed on a mobile device that allows operators to check and review fingerprints, analyze faces and voices, and scan irises in the field. They can upload or cross reference the information with a Defense Department database known as the Automated Biometric Identification System, or ABIS, to identify individuals or enemy combatants.

In an email to Military Times, McKenna Miller, the company’s communication director, explained that Identifi was originally developed by the company DFL Technology. DFL won a contract from Special Operations Forces Works, or SOFWERX, a non-profit that partners with SOCOM to bridge the gap between the public and private sectors for technological solutions.

Using input from SOCOM subject matter experts, the company built a prototype for Identifi. In 2023, they entered it into SOCOM’s Tactical Biometric Event, which was an open competition for industry with a technical and operational evaluation, and won. A year later, Reveal acquired DFL, and they have been working on the project together ever since.

Although using biometric data for identification is nothing new, the way in which the information is digitally collected and stored is.

Smith told Axios that when he deployed to Afghanistan with the Marine Corps, they used decades-old technology, so the hope is the Marines and Army will also adopt Reveal’s biometric tool. He called SOCOM the “trendsetter” for the U.S. military and intelligence communities.

Miller declined to disclose the value of SOCOM’s Identifi contract. But, according to a search of USA Spending, since 2019 Reveal has been awarded some 15 contracts totaling more than $13 million from the DoD, General Services Administration and Small Business Administration.

Since launching in 2018, Reveal said it has increased its revenue tenfold year over year. Last July, it announced that it had raised some $30 million in funding and with that investment, it has doubled its workforce to include more than a hundred employees.

According to Reveal’s announcement, SOCOM has already begun fielding the Identifi tool and it’s planning for broader deployment throughout the fiscal year.

According to Monday’s press release, the decision to award the contract was made by the Joint Interagency Task Force 401, or JIATF-401, a Defense Department organization charged with researching, testing, and procuring counter-drone technology.

Perennial will deliver a range of AI-enabled counter-unmanned aerial systems currently used by U.S. forces. These include Merops interceptors, Bumblebee quadcopters and Hornet midrange strike drones.

In a statement, the company said the contract “validates the operational reliability of that technology in the world’s most actively contested environments,” and “deepens the existing strategic partnership” between it and the Defense Department.

U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Matt Ross, director of JIATF-401, in the statement called drones “the defining threat of our time,” and reiterated the need to maintain partnerships with companies like Perennial.

“We must be proactive with creating a layered defense that deploy and scale low-cost, attritable air-to-air drone interceptors at all our facilities at home and abroad,” he added.

In December, the Pentagon launched the billion-dollar Drone Dominance initiative to equip troops with cheap, disposable drones and prepare them for technological changes on the battlefield, many of which were demonstrated in Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Another part of the initiative included investing heavily in the domestic drone industry, so within the next few years, equipment could be produced at scale for significantly less money.

But the Iran war further accelerated the U.S. military’s demand for the types of drones combatants have been using to attack or harass troops, destroy equipment or infrastructure and conduct surveillance, among other things.

During last month’s budget hearings, Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll told lawmakers that Perennial began rapidly scaling production of its Merops drones.

Perennial, originally launched by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt as Project Eagle, developed the Merops interceptor for Ukrainian forces to counter Russia’s one-way attack drones known as Shaheds.

The U.S. military is using the interceptors the same way against Iran’s Sheheds.

When answering questions about the investment, Driscoll described a war of attrition, saying the Merops currently costs about $15,000 per unit, whereas a Shahed costs somewhere between $30,000 and $50,000.

Additionally, JIATF-401 awarded Perennial a separate $5.2 million contract in January for the Bumblebee V2 counter-drone system, and the Army reportedly tested the Hornet midrange strike drones in March.

The company has also opened manufacturing operations in Europe through a partnership aimed at expanding production of its Merops drones.

Perennial’s contract will end in three years or whenever the Pentagon pays out the full $500 million, whichever comes first.

According to a criminal complaint filed last week, Chuan Wang allegedly denied involvement in the production of military products during an interview with customs officers in 2023 when in reality he ran a company that designs and manufactures unmanned aerial vehicles and drones for the Chinese military.

According to the complaint, Wang entered the United States in 2012 on a visa for visiting students and scholars to conduct research on aeroelastic wing design at the University of Michigan. In his visa application, Wang wrote that he planned to develop a “radio-controlled model airplane with high aspect ratio” and conduct related “design, fabrication, test, flight and analysis.”

A few years later, Wang obtained a 10-year tourist visa, describing himself as a business student employed by a media production company. Federal authorities noted that the employment information Wang later submitted — which required biennial updates — changed multiple times.

In one filing, Wang identified himself as a technical engineer for Volition Innovations Science and Technology. In another, he listed his employer as his father, Zhi Yuan Wang. In a third, he identified Tianxun Chuangxin Tech as his employer.

Then, in July 2023, Wang was interviewed by Customs and Border Protection officers while attempting to board a flight to China from Detroit Metropolitan Airport. When officers asked Wang about Tianxun, investigators said he could not explain his engineering specialty and eventually stopped answering questions. CBP officers then searched Wang and his luggage and seized his phone.

By November 2023, the Federal Bureau of Investigation had opened an investigation into Wang and Tianxun. According to the complaint, investigators found Chinese news articles, promotional materials and other online records as early as 2015 describing Wang as the co-founder of Tianxun, a drone manufacturer supplying the Chinese military.

Authorities also cited blog posts allegedly written by Wang discussing his success at Tianxun and how he developed a passion for drone design in high school. The posts reportedly included photographs of Wang presenting one of his drones to former Chinese air force general Xu Qiliang.

When investigators reviewed Wang’s cell phone, authorities say they found thousands of documents related to the design, manufacture and sale of unmanned aerial vehicles. In a message dated Sept. 13, 2022, authorities say Wang received confirmation of a bank deposit paid by the Chinese military’s Special Weapons Bureau.

Wang was reportedly the twelfth Chinese national tied to the University of Michigan to be charged in a federal national security case since 2023. In all, five were accused of smuggling research material: including fungus and roundworms; one allegedly voted illegally; and five were accused of photographing military equipment.

According to Wang’s online case docket, he has not yet been arraigned on charges for making false statements.

According to Tuesday’s Marine Administrative Message, or MARADMIN, the Corps will deactivate all remaining Hornet squadrons by 2030 and eliminate the maintenance specialties associated with the aging fighter jet.

Marines currently serving in one of the six affected specialties — including mechanic, avionics and technician roles — will have the opportunity to retrain for F-35 jobs, move into another specialty or leave the service once their enlistment contracts end.

While the Corps said Marines are “highly encouraged” to laterally move from F/A-18 to F-35 specialties, those who do not transition voluntarily may be reassigned based “solely on the needs of the Marine Corps,” regardless of how much time remains on their contracts.

The transition will occur regionally, with Hornet operations ending at different installations over the next several years. Once those transitions are complete, the F/A-18 maintenance occupations will effectively cease to exist.

The Corps plans to end Hornet operations at the following locations:

• Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, South Carolina, by Aug. 1, 2028
• Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, California, by Aug. 1, 2029
• Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, Texas, by Aug. 1, 2030

The Marines have already replaced Hornet squadrons with F-35 units at several bases in the United States and overseas. In 2018, the service deactivated its squadron for training F/A-18 pilots.

The Marine Corps adopted the F/A-18 Hornet in 1983 and has since flown it extensively in conflicts including Libya, Iraq, Bosnia and Afghanistan, according to a Naval Air Systems Command fact sheet.

NAVAIR described the aircraft as “the workhorse of Marine Corps tactical aviation,” noting that the Hornet proved capable of shooting down enemy fighters and striking ground targets during the same mission.

The command also highlighted the aircraft’s survivability, citing incidents in which Hornets damaged by surface-to-air missiles were repaired and returned to flight operations within days.

Although experts still consider the Hornet a capable platform, the F-35 was designed for modern warfare with advanced stealth and electronic warfare capabilities. According to the 2026 Marine Aviation Plan, the Marines plan to expand its F-35 fleet to 420 aircraft.