Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Army leaders: drones and counter‑UAS are central to transformation; committee urged to enable agile buys
Summary
Witnesses told the House committee that lessons from Ukraine and recent tests show drones and counter‑UAS must scale rapidly; Army asked Congress for agile funding, authority to work with industry and help scaling domestic production.
Secretary Dan Driscoll and Gen. Randy George told lawmakers that cheap, commercial unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and swarms have reshaped battlefield economics and that the Army intends to prioritize scale and affordability for both offensive unmanned systems and counter‑UAS defenses.
Why it matters: The committee repeatedly referenced Ukraine’s recent use of inexpensive drones to strike high‑value targets and the need for both massed small UAS production and layered countermeasures in the U.S. force posture.
Driscoll’s testimony cited the example of a coordinated strike in Ukraine that used a “swarm of over 100 inexpensive drones” to damage Russian strategic bombers and said the event illustrated how…
Already have an account? Log in
Subscribe to keep reading
Unlock the rest of this article — and every article on Citizen Portal.
- Unlimited articles
- AI-powered breakdowns of topics, speakers, decisions, and budgets
- Instant alerts when your location has a new meeting
- Follow topics and more locations
- 1,000 AI Insights / month, plus AI Chat
