Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll speaks at the opening ceremony of the AUSA convention Monday, Oct. 13, 2025, in Washington. (Eric Kayne/Stars and Stripes)
WASHINGTON — Army Secretary Dan Driscoll said Monday he would not tolerate sending soldiers into a modern conflict with decades-old weapons, using an expletive in a public speech to highlight his distaste for the service’s slow acquisition system.
“No one can predict the next war, but we cannot wait — we cannot f------ wait to innovate until Americans are dying on the battlefield,” Driscoll said in his keynote speech Monday at the outset of the annual Association of the U.S. Army convention in Washington. “We must act now to enable our soldiers. Our window to change is right now, and we have a plan to do it.”
The Army’s top civilian — an ex-Army officer, Iraq war veteran, lawyer and former venture capitalist — pledged to adopt a Silicon Valley-like approach to weapons and tech development and procurement. Driscoll demanded that Congress and arms developers must allow the Army to quickly adopt new technology in communications, artificial intelligence, drones and robotics outside of the traditional acquisition system that has proven slow and expensive.
The Army has long failed its soldiers, he said during his speech at the Army’s largest soldier development conference and trade convention, where manufacturers show off their latest gear and gadgets from rifles and tiny drones to helicopters and armored vehicles.
Members of the United States Army Band, “Pershing’s Own,” perform during the opening ceremony of the AUSA convention Monday, Oct. 13, 2025, in Washington. (Eric Kayne/Stars and Stripes)
Retired Gen. Robert B. Brown, president and CEO of AUSA, speaks during the opening ceremony of the AUSA convention Monday, Oct. 13, 2025, in Washington. (Eric Kayne/Stars and Stripes)
Members of the 3rd Infantry Regiment, "The Old Guard,” enter the ballroom during the opening ceremony of the AUSA convention Monday, Oct. 13, 2025, in Washington. (Eric Kayne/Stars and Stripes)
Driscoll spent part of Monday listening to small companies pitch their latest technology to Army leaders in a competition dubbed XTechDisrupt for a chance at a potential contract to supply the service their tech.
But there’s also more soldiers can do themselves to improve their battlefield kits, he said.
In some cases, soldiers can develop their own technology, like those in the 101st Airborne Division who have built their own 7-inch drone systems, known as “attritable battlefield enablers.” The tiny drones cost about $750 a piece, can travel about 2 kilometers and reach speeds approaching 90 mph, according to the Army.
“They are modular (and) you can swap components, make software updates, transition between attack, recon or defense,” Driscoll said. “Trained soldiers can assemble it in 20 minutes and then deliver it to the front lines — 100% soldier assembled.”
Soldiers can also solve other costly problems on expensive platforms like UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, which manufacturers have long limited how much the service can repair on its own because of intellectual property rights agreements. Driscoll has pushed for Congress to remove such agreements and grant the service “right-to-repair” powers even in its most expensive legacy programs.
Driscoll held up a small black and tan fin for a Black Hawk external fuel tank that soldiers 3D printed for about $3,000. The vendor charges the Army more than $14,000 to replace the part, which he said breaks often.
Another Black Hawk part, a quarter-size screen control knob can be 3D printed by soldiers for about $60, Driscoll said. The manufacturer will not replace the knobs — which Driscoll said break at an Army-wide rate of about four every month — alone but requires the service to replace the entire screen assembly for some $47,000.
“We’re spending around $188,000 every month for what we can solve for $60,” Driscoll said. “Now multiply this across thousands of components, and you see why our $185 billion budget simply doesn’t buy enough combat power, and in some cases, the parts take literally years to arrive for our soldiers.”
Driscoll vowed to “cut red tape” until soldiers have battlefield technology more advanced than they “use at home.”
“When you train you literally step into the same platforms that we fielded 30 to 40 years ago, like the Humvee,” Driscoll said. “You struggle to communicate beyond line of sight, and you wonder why the hell you can’t just use the smartphone in your pocket.
“Before and after work our soldiers live in the real world, but when they’re on duty, our soldiers time travel to the [technology of] the early 2000s at best — or earlier.”
