Buying drones like it’s 2015 will burn budgets and lose battles. The evaluation lens has shifted from platform specs to mission performance under jamming, autonomy, and kill web integration. These seven lessons reflect what actually worked under fire.
1) Test for EW Reality, Not Fair Weather
Run trials in GNSS denial, link degradation and spectrum congestion. Score behaviours under loss-of-link, autonomous reversion modes and navigation drift. Reward resilience, not brochure ranges.
2) Prioritise Fusion & C2 Over Platform ‘Shiny’
Airframes are commodities; decision engines are not. Weight scoring towards fusion quality, track confidence, and policy-driven C2 that closes the kill chain rapidly and safely.
3) Demand Modular Payload Paths with Real Power/Data Budgets
Insist on published power envelopes, timing constraints and certified interfaces. Verify swap speed and software reconfiguration in the field—not a lab.
4) Score Logistics and Sustainment Honestly
Battery lifecycles, spares, field-repair kits, and software support drive readiness. Ask for mean time to repair, firmware roll-back options and training pipelines.
5) Evaluate Fleet, Not Solo Airframes
Mixed fleets win missions. Assess how systems share data, hand off tracks and deconflict missions. Down-score any platform that can’t play well with others.
6) Bake Interoperability Into the Contract
Mandate open schemas, timestamp standards and security controls compatible with joint/coalition networks. Interop is not a patch; it’s a prerequisite.
7) Run Red-Team Trials Before Award
Let an adversarial team try to break the system: swarm tactics, terrain masking, decoys, and EW tricks. Award to what survives, not what demoed nicely.
Strategic Takeaway
Procurement that buys platforms fails; procurement that buys capability wins. Centre evaluation on fusion, autonomy and survivability—and the mission will follow.
Building a modern UAV evaluation framework? i-Disti can help define scoring rubrics, trial scenarios and supplier shortlists aligned to your concept of operations.
