Driscoll goes scorched earth on Army buying inertia
By Hope Hodge Seck
Oct 13, 2025, 11:52 AM
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll addresses soldiers at Fort Stewart, Georgia, Aug. 7. (Sgt. Bernabe Lopez/U.S. Army)
In what may be a first for the staid Association of the U.S Army’s annual meeting in Washington, the Army secretary kicked off the conference with an F-bomb.
Dan Driscoll, who has served as the Army’s civilian leader since February, announced major coming changes to Army purchasing, parts repairs and technological adoption in a heated address that accused construction contractors of corruption and stressed that the lives of soldiers were on the line.
“We cannot f-ing wait to innovate until Americans are dying on the battlefield,” Driscoll said. “We must act now to enable our soldiers. Our window to change is right now, and we have a plan to do it. We will set the pace with innovation and we will win with silicon and software, and not with our soldiers’ blood and bodies.”
Driscoll walked out on the stage following an AI-generated video montage of soldiers and Army equipment — a display he said illustrated the technological chasm between legacy technologies and new capabilities that the Army had yet to cross.
https://www.defensenews.com/land/2025/10/13/driscoll-goes-scorched-earth-on-army-buying-inertia/
