US military bases will be protected by attack drones, under Pentagon plans to repel Iran-linked groups in the Middle East.

On Monday, Lloyd Austin, the defence secretary, announced that the US would expand its Replicator programme, which has been developing American attack drones to be deployed against China.

A new phase of the programme will focus on defensive drones to be deployed at US installations at home and abroad.

It follows months of drone attacks on US bases in the Middle East by Iran-linked groups, with one killing three troops at a site in Jordan in January.

On Sunday, the latest strike took place at a base at Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria. No group has yet claimed responsibility.

US forces have a variety of defences against the so-called “suicide drones”, which are packed with high explosives and flown into military compounds.

The existing defences include electronic jamming devices and anti-aircraft machine guns.

Monday’s announcement suggests the Pentagon expects drone battles to become commonplace around US bases in the coming years.

The defensive drones could also be deployed around US Navy carrier groups, but a list of possible sites has not yet been compiled, a defence official told The Telegraph.

In a memo on Monday, Mr Austin said that “the next stage of Replicator will tackle the warfighter priority of countering the threat posed by small uncrewed aerial systems to our most critical installations and force concentrations”.

He added: “The expectation is that Replicator 2 will assist with overcoming challenges we face in the areas of production capacity, technology innovation, authorities, policies, open system architecture and system integration, and force structure.”

Mr Austin said that the first phase of Replicator, which was tasked with producing drone swarms that could be deployed against China in the event of an invasion of Taiwan, was “on track” to be completed next summer.

The second phase will begin after Congress has approved funding for the project in the Pentagon’s next budget request in March. The first drones could be deployed two years later, Mr Austin said.

Protecting US troops in the Middle East against attack drones has become one of the Pentagon’s top priorities, after a year of conflict that followed Hamas’s Oct 7 attack on Israel.

A variety of Iran-linked Islamist groups have targeted US forces in Syria, Iraq and Jordan since then, viewing the conflict as an opportunity to push Western forces out of those countries.

Following the death of three US troops in an attack in January, the US launched retaliatory strikes against several groups, launching 125 precision bombs in Iraq and Syria.

The White House said at the time that it “will not hesitate to defend our people and hold responsible all those who harm Americans at a time and place of our choosing”.