Army secretary warns bureaucratic waste at home is putting America behind on battlefield

Army Secretary Dan Driscoll warned Wednesday that bureaucratic bloat in the defense apparatus is undermining military innovation at the expense of warfighters.

Driscoll addressed the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday during a posture hearing for the U.S. Army, stressing in his opening remarks that sluggish bureaucracy and wasteful spending have stifled innovation the Army needs to keep up with a rapidly-changing battlefield. In particular, Driscoll pitched the Army Transformation Initiative (ATI) as a solution, touting a project that aims to cut unnecessary spending and invest in crucial technologies like drones.

“As Secretary, I have found that the Army has become calcified, having suffered from years of inefficiency, slow-moving processes, and wasteful spending. Program lobbyists and bureaucrats have overtaken the Army’s ability to prioritize Soldiers and warfighting,” Driscoll said during his opening remarks. “The Army Transformation Initiative will make us into an Army that is lean, agile, and relentlessly focused on empowering its Soldiers. An Army that embraces innovation, collaborates effectively with the private sector, and prioritizes warfighting readiness above all else.”

“We are asking for the flexibility to make decisions that keep pace with the rapid advancements in technology and the evolving nature of warfare,” Driscoll said.

Driscoll singled out drone warfare as a key area the Army is looking to modernize, saying the U.S. was “not keeping pace” compared to other nations and American adversaries. Drones have demonstrated their deadly potential prominently during the Russia-Ukraine war; for instance, Ukrainian forces launched a massive and sophisticated Sunday drone attack against Russia that successfully neutralized a large number of Russian warplanes.

The secretary emphasized the lag in innovation is not the fault of regular soldiers or lacking American ingenuity, but instead bureaucratic bloat and waste. Driscoll also noted in his remarks that the Army hit its fiscal year 2025 recruiting target of 61,000 new members four months early.

The ATI would eliminate obsolete programs such as the AH-64D “Apache” attack helicopter, which was first introduced  in 1984, and the “Gray Eagle” Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV), which first entered service nearly a decade ago.

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