Sgt. Adrian Herrera, assigned to the 173rd Airborne Brigade, calibrates a C-100 drone for a test flight at Ben Ghilouf Training Area, Tunisia, April 20, 2025. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll says the focus of a new initiative, called FUZE, would be on drones and anti-drone weapons. (Jose Lora/U.S. Army)
The Army announced plans Monday to spend $750 million per year on a new initiative to bring Silicon Valley-style entrepreneurial speed to weapons development, particularly drone and anti-drone technology.
“Transformation is not just a goal, it’s an operational necessity,” said Matt Willis, director of Army Innovation Programs.
Willis, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and other Army leaders touted the new initiative, called FUZE, at the Demand Signal Forum on Monday at George Mason University Arlington Annex in Virginia before an audience that included military leaders, tech industry representatives, defense contractors and analysts.
The goal is to finance early investment in innovative technology that could swiftly be brought from tech firm designers to troops.
“Are they getting the tools they need fast enough to dominate on the battlefield?” Driscoll asked the audience. “If the answer is anything less than an unequivocal ‘yes,’ then we have a moral duty to change.”
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll announces FUZE innovation initiative on Sept. 15, 2025, at George Mason University Arlington Annex, Va. (U.S. Army)
Driscoll said the “venture-capital-like” initiative would accelerate the process of moving ideas from blueprints to battlefields by investing early in promising ideas. FUZE would mimic the business-incubator model of simultaneous development and production frequently used in Silicon Valley, the tech center in Northern California.
Driscoll said an early focus of FUZE funds would be on drones and anti-drone weapons. During his Senate confirmation hearing in February, Driscoll said the Army had to find new ways to counter possible enemy swarming drone strikes.
“We can no longer shoot $4 million missiles to take down a $400 drone — that simple math doesn’t add up,” he told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
FUZE-funded systems would operate outside, but alongside, the traditional defense acquisition system, where major programs currently can take years to go from idea to prototype to development and then, finally, production and delivery.
FUZE will funnel funds through existing Pentagon and industry initiatives, such as Small Business Innovation Research and Technology Transfer, xTech, Manufacturing Technology and Technology Maturation initiatives.
The Army will offer prize competitions, such as a $500,000 xTech prize and a $2.5 million Counterstrike Competition, the Army said in a statement Tuesday.
Driscoll said soldiers’ input using the new weapons could be incorporated to make updates and changes “from cradle to the grave” of a system’s service life.
Army officials said more information on FUZE competitions would be available at the Association of the United States Army convention in Washington, Oct. 13-15.
