NEW YORK, November 5. /TASS/. The United States was not ready for the modern era of military conflicts involving drones, Emil Michael, the Defense Department’s under secretary for research and engineering, acknowledged.

"We were caught flat-footed by the drone warfare in Ukraine and Russia. We weren’t prepared because we just didn’t imagine it," The Wall Street Journal quoted him as saying.

According to the senior defense official, the United States is working to equip its Army with autonomous systems that could dominate in conflicts in Europe and the Middle East. He also claimed that the US currently has a stockpile of about 500,000 drones, while it manufactured about 1,000 drones under former President Joe Biden.

Even as the Pentagon is embracing AI technology, the US military still relies on intelligence reports and satellite imagery to develop targets, Michael said.

Earlier, Travis Metz, acting director of the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit, told Bloomberg that the Department of Defense is "starting from basically zero" in manufacturing cheap expendable drones. According to Bloomberg, US drone companies must deal with supply chain challenges, high costs for components and bureaucracy at the institution that hinders its ability to rapidly deploy innovative technology. In addition, Washington has restricted the use of Chinese components, driving up manufacturing costs.