No money, no problem: Army unit making its own drones
With limited funding and resources, the Army is looking to supplement programs of record with 3D-printed drones.
By
Mark Pomerleau
March 4, 2025
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — With limited resources and funds, an Army unit is looking to make its own drones at a fraction of the cost of commercially available systems procured through traditional acquisition processes.
The service is drawing key lessons from Ukraine, where unmanned aerial systems have been ubiquitous on the battlefield. The Army is now looking for more expendable platforms, a marked change from the past where soldiers were disciplined for losing assets that were allotted to units at specific and known quantities.
“Based off of the fact that we still don’t necessarily have a budget, we’ve been operating under a continuing resolution [since the beginning of fiscal 2025] and there are some fiscal constraints associated what we’ve been doing now, we’ve been trying to figure out what are all the things that we can do a little bit more innovative, a little bit smaller scale. [We] haven’t necessarily gotten any more money to buy any UASs … The team went back and said, OK, well, if we can’t buy anymore, let’s start making our own,” Maj. Gen. Brett Sylvia, commander of the 101st Airborne Division, told reporters during a visit to the unit’s home at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, Feb. 26.
Now, the Army is taking a somewhat different approach than it has in the past.
https://defensescoop.com/2025/03/04/army-unit-making-own-drones-3d-printing-101st-airborne-division/
