Our military manufacturing volume was not very high before WW2. It wasn't until the potential adversaries became actual adversaries that we ramped it up.
If a similar sort of nation-uniting threat arose, to the extent that we'd be willing to take extreme measures like halting all manufacturing of civilian automobiles, drone production could be massively increased.
Of course, the problem is that the willingness is unlikely to be there until a serious war breaks out, and then we may not have the luxury of taking a couple of years to ramp up.
We can't, because we don't want to. Its theoretically possible for the USA to ramp up to be the biggest producer in world, but not quickly. Drones have many parts that aren't produced in the USA at all, so all of those lines would have to be developed from effectively nothing. This is not a fast process. Like that old saying, if you think you might need the wood in the future, you plant the seeds now.
I don't think we actually can due to the physical constraints. Things like drones require chips. Chip fabs are pretty rare in the US. There is a ceiling to how much we can produce until the production infrastructure can be increased. Then look at stuff like steel production vs imports. Even if we halt consumer products, the gap is too big. Building mines and smelters can take years.
We did have a nation uniting threat arrive 5 years ago.
On the plus side the govt did pull off a successful moonshot with the development of the vaccines.
On the downside it got derailed by a bunch of internet trolls and social media influencers to the point that it was denouncing its own (and arguably only) achievement during this period.
Our military manufacturing volume was not very high before WW2. It wasn't until the potential adversaries became actual adversaries that we ramped it up.
If a similar sort of nation-uniting threat arose, to the extent that we'd be willing to take extreme measures like halting all manufacturing of civilian automobiles, drone production could be massively increased.
Of course, the problem is that the willingness is unlikely to be there until a serious war breaks out, and then we may not have the luxury of taking a couple of years to ramp up.