Ukrainian SkyFall Drone Tops Pentagon Gauntlet Evaluation With Near-Perfect Score

A fiber-optic FPV drone developed by Ukrainian company SkyFall finished the Pentagon's inaugural Drone Dominance Gauntlet with a score of 99.3 out of 100, topping a field of more than two dozen competitors by nearly 12 points and landing at the top of the program's official leaderboard.

The Shrike 10 Fiber, submitted to the competition through a partnership with London-headquartered firm Skycutter, is controlled via a fiber-optic cable measuring 12.4 miles long. The system placed first in long-range performance testing and second in urban strike evaluations. In the urban test, the Shrike scored perfectly alongside nine other drones, with final ordering in that category determined by warfighter feedback on usability and field practicality.

No other competitor came close on the overall scorecard. Neros Archer, which had already been inducted by the U.S. Marine Corps in 2025 and later selected by the Army for Tranche 1 of its Purpose-Built Attritable System program, finished second with 87.5 points. Napatree, ModalAI, and Auterion clustered between 77 and 80.3 points, while the remaining finalists, including Ukrainian Defense Drones, Griffon Aerospace, Nokturnal AI, Halo Aeronautics, Ascent AeroSystems, and Farage Precision, scored between 70 and 72.9. The program chose not to name a twelfth finalist as originally contemplated, and several prominent builders, among them Draganfly, Dzyne Technologies, Performance Drone Works, XTEND Reality, and Teal Drones, did not advance.

All 11 finalists are slated to receive UAS delivery orders from the Pentagon. UDD's F10 quadcopter, manufactured by F-Drones and priced at approximately 27,000 UAH ($611) on Ukraine's Brave1 defense marketplace, scored 72.9 and secured a procurement contract in the process.

Testing began in February at Fort Benning, Georgia, where troops and officials evaluated the competing systems. The Drone Dominance Program was launched by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as part of a broader effort to accelerate the U.S. military's adoption of low-cost, battlefield-tested FPV strike drones, systems that have demonstrated significant tactical effects in Ukraine's conflict. The program's scoring methodology deliberately weighted usability alongside raw performance. "A high-performance drone that is difficult to operate could score poorly compared to a less capable drone that is easier to use," program officials wrote. They also noted that design specialization was expected: "A drone optimized for agility may struggle in a long-range strike. Those differences are a design choice. This Gauntlet was about selecting existing technology to meet the needs of warfighters right now."

Skycutter did not respond to questions about which specific system it submitted to the competition. The results were posted to the program's website, which lists Skycutter first among the 11 performers selected to receive orders. SkyFall is also known for its P1 Sun drone interceptor, a very low-cost counter-UAS system operating at the other end of the price spectrum from most Western defense procurement.

The Gauntlet results represent a tangible payoff for Ukraine's battlefield-driven drone development ecosystem. With Ukrainian manufacturers holding two of the top 11 spots in a Pentagon competition explicitly designed to mirror wartime procurement pressure, the program has effectively validated years of front-line iteration as a substitute for traditional American R&D cycles.