U.S. Begins Modernizing Army Based On Lessons From Ukraine War
- 1.05.2025, 18:18
The U.S. Army will ramp up its use of drones.
The U.S. Army has begun the biggest overhaul since the end of the Cold War, with plans to equip each unit with about 1,000 drones and get rid of outdated equipment, reports The Wall Street Journal.
If the plan is implemented, 10 active-duty Army units will largely switch to drones, using them for surveillance, transporting supplies and conducting attacks.
To "learn lessons" from the war in Ukraine, where drones have played a major role in combat, U.S. officers interviewed Ukrainian military officials and consulted with contractors who have worked with the AFU, the Journal writes. "We have to learn how to use drones, how to fight them, how to assess them, extract them and use them in combat so we can see beyond line of sight," said Col. Donald Neal, commander of the U.S. 2nd Cavalry Regiment.
He added that the U.S. military has drones in service, but there have always been very few. WSJ notes that units typically have about a dozen long-range drones.
The plan, dubbed the Army Transformation Initiative, is the result of more than a year of experimentation at U.S. bases and the Hohenfels training range in Bavaria, which was used during the Cold War to train armored forces for a possible Soviet attack on Western Europe, WSJ notes.
In February, an exercise was held there that also used drones. The cold weather caused ice to form on the propeller blades of the drones, which led to rapid battery drainage, which was not the case in other drills, the story said.
Besides deploying more drones, the U.S. Army is also developing ways to improve communications between soldiers on the battlefield using cell phones, tablets and Internet technology, as well as acquiring a new infantry patrol vehicle. The U.S. Army plans to invest about $3 billion to develop better systems to intercept drones and increase electronic warfare capabilities.
Officials say the total realignment of the U.S. military will cost $36 billion over the next five years, which the Army will gain by cutting some obsolete weapons and writing off other systems. The latest actions will require congressional support.
In particular, the U.S. Army will stop buying Humvee all-terrain vehicles, which have been a staple of combat equipment for decades, the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle general purpose combat vehicles and the M10 light tank, which has proven heavier and less effective than expected. The U.S. military also plans to scrap its aging Apache helicopters. Civilian personnel cuts will also help save money.
A Pentagon official told the WSJ that Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George and Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll recently told Vice President J.D. Vance that the military has a plan to increase capabilities while cutting costs. Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth endorsed the plan, the newspaper adds.
"We're not going to ask for more money. We want to better spend the money we have," George said in an interview.
Driscoll said that three brigades (units of 3,000 to 5,000 soldiers that make up a division) have already been equipped with some of the new unmanned systems and the goal is to introduce the innovations to the remaining units on active duty within two years.