• The US Army highlighted an ongoing program to upgrade the range of its Stinger missiles.
• The program, Red Wasp, has been applying solid fuel ramjet technology to increase reach.
• Stingers have seen widespread use in a number of conflicts, including the Ukraine war.

The US Army is developing new technology aimed at giving legacy Stinger missiles, shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles, a much longer reach.

An air defense interceptor program, Red Wasp, has been working on new technology to increase the Stinger's range, allowing it to hit targets at greater distances.

The Army's Combat Capabilities Development Command Aviation and Missile Center shared an update on the Red Wasp program Wednesday, highlighting a successful test flight last year and plans for future flights.

The Army said the focus of the program has been on solid-fueled ramjet technology, a dual propulsion cycle that starts with a conventional solid rocket motor to boost the missile to supersonic speed.

Once the booster ultimately burns out, outside air enters the combustion chamber through a port at the front of Stinger's solid fuel rocket motor, rather than being stored on board, and ignites the ramjet fuel.

"The ramjet cycle thus greatly increases the engine's delivered performance and ultimately the missile's range," the Army center explained.

That'll help soldiers use Stinger to engage with threats like uncrewed aerial systems with intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities at longer distances, said Capability Area Lead for Air and Missile Defense John Gibbs.

"With Red Wasp, we can reach out and touch them at greater distances," he said. 

Stingers, man-portable air defense systems that fire surface-to-air missiles, have been in service since 1981, with few changes to their range over the past almost 45 years. They're fired over-the-shoulder and hone in on their target via infrared, making soldiers and insurgents more effective against helicopter gunships.

Red Wasp was a high-risk, high-reward, completely government-owned program to make the system much more lethal, Chappell Ray, deputy capability area lead for air and missile defense, noted.

The Stinger was chosen as a candidate for testing this type of technology a few years ago. At the time, "several industry propulsion experts expressed concerns about the feasibility of applying solid fuel ramjet technology to the Stinger form factor," Gibbs said. "The team took that as a challenge and within 18 months, successfully demonstrated the concept in a flight test."

Additional flight testing is expected this summer.

Stingers have been used in combat for decades. For instance, the US made the uneasy decision to share the missile with US-backed Afghan rebels to help erode the Soviet Union's control of the air. Over the course of the war, an estimated 2,000 and 2,500 were sent. Stingers have also seen combat in other wars, most recently Ukraine. Weeks after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, then-US President Joe Biden sent them to Ukraine to shoot down Russian helicopters.

• Raytheon, a division of RTX, announced its new upgraded radar for hypersonic missile defense.
• The company said on Monday it delivered the radar to the US Missile Defense Agency.
• Hypersonic weapons are fast with unpredictable flight patterns that challenge current missile defenses.

Raytheon has given the US Missile Defense Agency a new radar, the most advanced of its kind, that it says can support the difficult mission of defending against hypersonic weapons.

The radar is one of the latest examples of how the US is working to strengthen its air defenses against more advanced threats like hypersonic weapons, which are nearly impossible to intercept with current systems.

Raytheon, an RTX Corporation business, announced on Monday the delivery of its first upgraded AN/TPY-2 missile defense radar featuring a Gallium Nitride (GaN) populated array.

These radars are able to detect, track, and discriminate ballistic missiles in multiple phases of flight. The latest upgrade improves the sensitivity and range of the radar and expands its surveillance capabilities.

"The radar also features the latest CX6 high-performance computing software that offers more precise target discrimination and electronic attack protection," Raytheon said in a release.

Some experts have noted the game-changing use of GaN semiconductor technology in enhancing radars, radio frequency sensing, and other communication platforms. Multiple big players in the defense industry have been working on GaN-based capabilities, especially for upgrading sensors and weapons systems.

Last fall, Raytheon began production of the GaN-empowered Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense System (LTAMDS) with the Army, designing it to ultimately replace the current Patriot missile defense system radars.

Raytheon's new version of the AN/TPY-2 is the most advanced it's built, said Sam Deneke, president of Air and Space Defense Systems at Raytheon, per the release. "As demand increases for missile defense of the homeland, the AN/TPY-2 radar is ready to meet the mission."

US military officials have been pushing for more capabilities to defend against hypersonics for years now. They're daunting weapons due to a hypersonic missile's ability to fly low, fast, and maneuver along unpredictable flight paths that make them far more difficult to intercept than already challenging ballistic missiles that fly the predictable parabolic arcs.

Both China and Russia, key US rivals, possess hypersonic missiles in their arsenals.

US-made air defenses have defeated Russia's advanced Kinzhal air-launched ballistic missile, sometimes questionably touted as hypersonic weaponry. But defending against weapons more accurately identified by that name, such as China's DF-17 missile equipped with a hypersonic glide vehicle or Russia's Zircon scramjet-powered hypersonic cruise missile, could prove more difficult, though Ukraine has claimed to have defeated the Zircon.

Though the weapons may not be unstoppable, they represent a much more challenging threat, and this technology is continuing to advance.

China's expansion of its missile arsenal has raised concerns about the vulnerability of US forces and strategic allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific region. Washington lawmakers and US military leaders have repeatedly said that American forces lack the active and passive defenses needed to defend against a substantial Chinese missile bombardment that could include hypersonic weapons. But efforts are underway to strengthen these defenses.

Last year, for instance, the US and Japan announced plans to jointly develop a hypersonic missile defense system as part of a Glide Phase Interceptor (GPI) Cooperative Development (GCD) Project Arrangement that aims to intercept a hypersonic weapon in its glide phase of flight. 

And more recently, the Trump administration began pursuing a new "Iron Dome for America," now called the "Golden Dome," because, as the president said in a January executive order, "the threat of attack by ballistic, hypersonic, and cruise missiles, and other advanced aerial attacks, remains the most catastrophic threat facing the United States."

• US special operations is using artificial intelligence to reduce the cognitive load on operators.
• This includes not just combat operations but also paperwork, manual tasks, and data.
• Various types of AI are already being employed and expanded.

From warfighting to paperwork, US Special Operations Forces are interested in getting in on AI to simplify the work.

The goal for these elite forces, much like it is for regular people working office jobs and using AI to sort data or compile information, is to lessen the overall cognitive load, or mental effort, required for whatever a task may be. A lot of different types of artificial intelligence are being used, and it's only growing.

AI has many potential applications for the US military, from autonomous features in uncrewed systems to AI-enabled targeting to enhanced situational awareness. The Department of Defense is eager to implement this technology to prepare US forces for a high-end technological conflict chock full of data and information.

Future wars could be fought in an environment where decision-making may need to happen quicker than humans alone can do, and that's where military officials see the benefit of AI and human-machine teaming.

With AI, "we can reduce the cognitive burden of our operators," Col. Rhea Pritchett, the program executive officer of SOF Digital Applications, said at SOF Week in Tampa, Florida, earlier this month. Instead of worrying about other things, operators "will take that precious time to critically think about actions that they need to take next to achieve the effect that they want."

AI can sift through massive amounts of data quickly to focus on necessary information in a combat scenario and it can aid in mission planning and command and control functions.

This technology can also be used in battlespace awareness tools "to identify the position or location information of objects, people, and terrain — enhancing operator analysis and decision-making capabilities," Pritchett added over email.

These kinds of capabilities are already being developed.

But there are other functions of AI in SOF, and they aren't unlike the way civilians use ChatGPT or other AI-driven platforms for their jobs and personal lives.

That includes paperwork: situational reports, concepts for operations, and forecasting supplies. The tasks that might take an operator a long time to complete and draw their focus away from other aspects of the job.

Back-end work, as Ben Van Roo, CEO and cofounder of Legion Intelligence Inc, put it, could also be aided by artificial intelligence. Such work could include better search functions for analyzing DoD doctrine and understanding elements of specific locations, commands, or job positions.

One prime example could be using AI tools when entering a new position to quickly get up to speed on the work. When military personnel receive orders for their next job, it can be a lot of work to learn not only the ins and outs of the position itself but also the larger bureaucracy, geographic information, and historical and political context, what their predecessor did, types of weapons and capabilities present, and so on.

That is a bit different than how AI in the military is regularly perceived. "People tend to jump to Terminator," Van Roo said. "Actually, the great majority of it right now is just, people can barely even do their jobs with all these archaic systems."

While there are many possibilities for AI technology in warfighting systems, such as the AI-enabled drones that are demonstrating just how effective this technology can make an uncrewed fighting platform or the AI algorithms being taught to fly fighter jets, there's much that can be done to improve the mundane.

AI has the potential to address some of the headaches and help reform some older technological policies, effectively streamlining the processes. It might even have an application in assessing details for contracts and programs.

"The potential to relieve the cognitive load is extremely high," Van Roo said.

AI could provide assistance with what some operators might consider the more time-consuming tasks of their job and take a form similar to an AI assistant designed to take notes, gather and review key client data, transcribe meetings, and outline important takeaways.

AI systems are already being used in SOF, Pritchett told BI, including generative machine learning, large language models, natural language processing, and computer vision.

The rise of AI in militaries has been met with skepticism and ethical concerns from experts and officials about its implementation, especially in combat scenarios.

The Pentagon has maintained that its policy on AI will keep a human in the loop for decision-making, though some observers have argued that doing so might not always be possible in a high-speed, data-driven future fight. Some have also cautioned that the technology may end up developing at a much quicker pace than Washington and the Pentagon can regulate it.

• President Trump announced planned upgrades to the F-22 Raptor.
• He also accused China of copying the aircraft, but he didn't give specifics.
• Speaking on the upgrades, Trump said 'we're going to be doing an F-22 Super'

President Donald Trump says the F-22 Raptor stealth air-superiority fighter is getting a "super" upgrade.

This could be a big deal for the fifth-generation fighter jet, which the US no longer makes but has updated since it first entered service two decades ago.

Trump announced the news at a meeting with business leaders in Doha, Qatar, on Thursday. During the meeting, he called the F-22 "the most beautiful fighter in the world" and said "we're going to be doing an F-22 Super" that would be "a very modern version" of the jet.

The F-22 Raptor is a stealth fighter jet manufactured by Lockheed Martin in partnership with Boeing. It's built to combat hostile airpower through low observability, radical maneuvering capabilities, and other advanced capabilities.

The jet has never fought the kind of high-end threats it was made for. Its most notable air-to-air kill was a Chinese spy balloon. The F-22 has also engaged in air-to-ground combat missions.

The US military says that the F-22 offers pilots a "first-look, first-shot, first-kill advantage over adversaries." The jet took its first flight in 1997; F-22 production ceased in 2011, but the remaining fighters have received avionics upgrades since then.

Trump didn't give details on what types of upgrades he was having the US military look into for the jet.

In 2021, then-US Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown indicated the jet wasn't in the Air Force's long-term plan for a future fighter fleet, and last month, Trump announced the new F-47 stealth jet, the Next Generation Air Dominance fighter, an expected replacement for the F-22.

During Thursday's meeting, Trump accused China of copying the F-22 but didn't give details on what he was necessarily referring to. "They copied our design but they won't be able to copy our engines," he said.

US officials have previously suggested China made a copycat of the F-22 Raptor, called the J-20, Beijing's first fifth-gen fighter. The similarity has been questioned by some analysts, and there have been accusations that China incorporated stolen US designs for it.

The White House didn't immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment on the upgrades or Trump's accusation.

It remains unclear whether Trump is envisioning simple upgrades or a massive overhaul. What that means for Lockheed is uncertain. The production line is inactive, and supply chains are cold. Trump's plan for a new F-22 Super could be a substantial change.

• On changing battlefields, armies have to adapt quickly using the close relationship between industry and troops.
• The model for that is having companies on the front line getting feedback, DIU's program manager said.
• He called Silicon Valley a "secret weapon."

Modern battlefields change quickly, and the trick to making sure weapons and capabilities keep pace with new threats and challenges is to put companies on the front lines with troops, a Defense Department official said Tuesday.

It's a "Silicon Valley" type of model, the DoD official said.

US military officials, acquisition team members, and leaders in Washington have long been discussing the need for rapid iteration for future fights, pointing to examples from the war in Ukraine, where an underdog nation on defense built an arsenal on a shoestring warfighting budget and held its own in the tech arms race against the larger invading Russian force.

Lessons from this conflict have shown just how quickly some weapons, like different types of drones, are entering the battle and then being thwarted by electronic warfare like signal jamming and other countermeasures.

When they run into a problem, the soldiers can relay their concerns and experiences to industry partners, which must react quickly to introduce new solutions. Sometimes, the cycle takes only a matter of weeks.

At a Hudson Institute event on building weapons that can be adapted at scale, Defense Innovation Unit Program Manager Trent Emeneker said uncrewed systems had changed warfare like nothing since the introduction of the machine gun during World War I and that the war in Ukraine is showing constant iterative adaptation in both technology and tactics.

What's the trick? Emeneker suggested a rather untraditional government contracting approach with more trust in the defense industry and constant, close work on adapting systems.

"What we see is the model that works is companies and their engineering teams are embedded directly with the warfighter, on the front lines, at operations, in combat," he explained. "They take that learned feedback, and they send it back, overnight, to the larger engineering team."

Then, the solution is brought back to the warfighter. It's not going to be perfect, Emeneker said, but it's going to be better. And if not, they try again until they get it right.

"It's the Silicon Valley model of software development: go fast, release, update, and improve," he said.

That is a shift in traditional thinking and how defense contractors have worked with the US military on weapons programs in the past. It would be a move away from years of testing complex, exquisite weapons systems before getting them into the hands of troops. There are efforts like that in the US military, but it's not militarywide.

A lot of smaller, newer defense companies are embracing these concepts, especially in the uncrewed systems and artificial intelligence spaces. US military and defense industry leaders recognize that for potential future wars against peer adversaries like China, cheap, easily made weapons will be needed. Some companies have told Business Insider the work with soldiers has provided a constant stream of feedback for adapting systems.

This type of acquisition and development process is one that is becoming increasingly popular within special operations forces.

At the Hudson Institute event, some panelists discussed how this approach could give the US an advantage in a future war with China, which has undergone a massive transformation of its military resources, technologies, and capabilities in recent years.

Adapting systems and capabilities to the needs of the US military quickly in a conflict situation depends on the private sector. "Silicon Valley is our secret weapon," Emeneker said.

• Cummings Aerospace showed off its Hellhound loitering munition at SOF Week 2025 in Tampa, Florida.
• The system is mostly 3D-printed, can fly at speeds over 375 mph, and is powered by a turbojet engine.
• CEO Sheila Cummings told BI said the drone's design and features make it unique compared to others on the market.

A couple feet long, rounded, relatively lightweight, and easy to make, this exploding drone can fly fast and attaches to a rucksack.

That's the basics of Hellhound, a loitering munition made by Cummings Aerospace based in Huntsville, Alabama. This kind of weapon features characteristics of both missiles and drones, delivering surveillance and strike in a single package.

The Hellhoud recently completed flight tests and a few demonstrations before being submitted to a top US Army drone competition. Earlier in the year, it was tested in the Army's Expeditionary Warrior Experiment 2025.

Loitering munitions are becoming more prolific and playing a role in conflicts like the war in Ukraine. As a turbojet-powered drone, the Hellhound is unlike many other loitering munitions. The top speed is nearly three times faster than the popular Switchblade made by AeroVironment.

Hellhound wrapped up flight tests earlier this year, and the S3 version of it, which Business Insider saw up close at SOF Week 2025 in Tampa, Florida, is in submission for the US Army's Low Altitude Stalking and Striking Ordnance, or LASSO, program.

LASSO requires select companies to build 135 munitions and 35 prototypes immediately. It's a new-start program, the goal of which is to give infantry brigades better stand-off weapons capabilities.

Cummings Aerospace's CEO Sheila Cummings told BI that much of how her company is thinking about the Hellhound has been with modularity, ease of manufacturing, and warfighter feedback in mind. She also said the system is affordable but wouldn't disclose a specific cost or price range.

At first glance, the Hellhound loitering munition, sitting inside its case, looks a bit like a boogie board. Weighing less than 25 pounds, the weapon is fairly lightweight and easy to pick up and carry. There are straps on the bottom that can attach it to a soldier's rucksack, something Cummings said was a key suggestion from soldiers who wanted the system to be as man-portable as possible.

The majority of a Hellhound is 3D printed. Cummings estimated that, depending on the number of printers, they could fully print a Hellhound in a few days at least and a week at most.

Any part that isn't 3D-printed is commercial off-the-shelf, an increasingly important quality for the weapons and systems that the US military acquires as it speeds up the process.

The US military has been pushing for more of its systems, especially the uncrewed weapon systems, to be suitable for production on a large scale, interchangeable capabilities and components, and supply chain flexibility.

There's a growing realization that for future wars, inexpensive, easily made weapons will be needed in mass in a protracted, large-scale conflict against a major rival like China.

A key development of the Ukraine war has been how Ukraine has created an arsenal of cheap drones for surveillance and precision strike. That's something militaries around the world are watching closely given how effective it's been.

"We're really trying to minimize the exquisite, custom products," Cummings told BI, explaining that the Hellhound's payload, too, can be interchanged with different sensors or warheads depending on what the mission requirements are simply by twisting and unlocking the nose.

A defining characteristic of the Hellhound is its turbojet engine. Cummings said it's a differentiator for the system and company as it not only reduces fuel usage but also increases speed. Cummings Aerospace advertises the Hellhound as being able to fly faster than 375 mph with a range of around 25 miles.

The turbojet engine is also a commercially available product, Cummings said. She said the munition's shape, sleek and long, also aids with aerodynamics. Cummings Aerospace has imagined Hellhound swarms in the field providing a mix of intelligence, reconnaissance, and surveillance and strike.

The focus on loitering munitions — which can, as the name suggests, loiter in an area before diving in to strike a target — comes amid efforts to give troops on the ground stand-off strike capabilities. These weapons have seen widespread use in the war in Ukraine, and Russian loitering munitions, like its Lancet drones and Iranian-made Shaheds, have been high-value targets for Kyiv's forces.

• AimLock is an aided target recognition technology company founded in 2013.
• Its targeting systems have been applied to everything from rifles to rockets and various drones.
• CEO Bryan Bockman told BI about AimLock's work in the counter-UAS space at SOF Week 2025.

Helping troops armed with rifles, drones, mounted machine guns, and even grenade and rocket launchers identify and lock onto targets more easily — that's the basic mission of US company AimLock, which has been developing automated targeting products for over a decade.

At SOF Week 2025, the company's CEO, Bryan Bockmon, told Business Insider about how the company is now focusing on autonomous weapons systems that may be crucial for future warfare, systems made for defeating drones. Countering drones is an expanding area of research and development, with a lot of work being done in Ukraine, though that isn't the only country where this technology is being developed.

The Ukraine war has shown that electronic warfare like signal jamming and GPS spoofing can be effective when it comes to defeating enemy drones, but having a kinetic option, the ability to shoot it, as a last resort for destroying those systems is essential should other options fail.

And they may fail because some drones, like the fiber-optic drones becoming more common in Ukraine or AI-enabled systems, for instance, are resistant to electronic warfare.

"If that doesn't work," Bockmon said of electronic warfare, then "this is the last line of defense."

Defeating drones

AimLock's autonomous counter-drone systems are made to detect classify, and track uncrewed aerial systems and then decide on the best firing solution for taking them out.

One of the AimLock counter-UAS systems was on display at SOF Week in Tampa, Florida. Bockmon said that the system was invulnerable to signal jamming and other elements of electronic warfare because it relies on visual navigation and autonomous terminal guidance.

"We develop autonomy that's specialized for weapons integration," the CEO said, explaining that the autonomy is in finding targets, aiming, tracking, and engagement, or actually firing the weapon at the target.

What makes AimLock's development approach interesting is that "instead of making specialized systems that then have to be reinvented 10 times over to cover the entire mission need," Bockmon said, it makes "generalized modules that can be adapted across 10 different missions."

So if the warfighter needs a different sensor or weapon system, it can find an AimLock product to match. It reduces the development cycle, the CEO said, lowering costs and simplifying the process.

The company's Core Targeting Module, or CTM, as it's called, is at the heart of AimLock's systems. It combines autonomy and firing and targeting components to improve the speed and precision of weapons from guns to uncrewed systems.

The CTM hardware is, in some cases, just a small black box with a few plug-in outlets on top.

Bockmon said the modularity of it and other weapons systems AimLock makes allows it "to offer new solutions that can adapt at the pace of combat," whether that is a low-intensity fight or a high-intensity great power conflict in remote or contested environments with limited communications.

While the company has been working to refine all of this for years, its current focus is its counter-drone systems.

Counter-drone technology has been growing in importance for years now with electronic warfare, directed energy (lasers), and other developments all aimed at defeating uncrewed systems, but the technology is becoming critical as drones, especially small, inexpensive drones, become more prolific. The Pentagon unveiled its new counter-UAS strategy to address these issues last year, but there's a lot of work to be done to meet the threat.

"We finished our first counter-UAS systems back in 2018," Bockmon explained to BI, "and they had to sit on the shelves for a long time because it was really about how effective will electronic warfare be in the future, and then how quickly will it be defeated." It wasn't clear initially how effective electronic warfare would be, but it's clear now that it's not infallible.

The counter-drone mission was a big topic at SOF Week 2025. Multiple defense industry exhibitors and special operations officials spoke to the growing need for a variety of solutions to defeat hostile drones. The Defense Department has made developing a military-wide strategy for countering drones a top priority.

• L3Harris showed off its new light attack airplane that it says can land almost anywhere.
• The Sky Warden, or Skyraider II, was on display at SOF Week in Tampa, Florida.
• BI got up close with the Sky Warden and took photos of this new aircraft.

US Air Force Special Operations Command got its first mission-ready Skyraider II attack plane last month, and this week, Business Insider got an up-close look at the new light attack plane at SOF Week 2025 in Tampa, Florida.

Air Tractor and L3Harris' AT-802U Sky Warden, designated the OA-1K Skyraider II by AFSOC in reference to the A-1 Skyraiders of the Korean and Vietnam wars, is an armed intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, close-air support, and strike aircraft that L3Harris says can land almost anywhere.

The new light attack aircraft is a militarized variant of the Air Tractor AT-802 long used for civilian work like agriculture.

Here's what it looks like:

The Air Force describes the Skyraider II as a flexible aircraft that can be adjusted for different missions and fights, noting that it has a much more manageable maintenance demand and a lower cost per flight hour than other AFSOC aircraft.

Like its legendary predecessor, the new Skyraider was built for armed overwatch and attack in permissive environments, though the battlespace is not what it once was, and there are questions about its role in a high-intensity fight in the Indo-Pacific.

Jon Rambeau, the president of integrated mission systems at L3Harris, said the Sky Warden is a "versatile" platform and "costs a fraction of what you might pay for a fighter jet." Just how much the planes cost is a detail that isn't publicly available.

Rambeau and Clint Logwood, L3Harris' director of flight tests and flight operations, said one of Skyraider II's most important attributes is its ability to operate in different environments. It can also land just about anywhere with a limited logistics footprint.

"This thing could land anywhere," Logwood said, from rugged and remote airfields to highways.

The Air Force has prioritized flexibility, specifically the ability to operate in austere environments and off of unconventional runways like roadways. Fixed airfields and bases are easy targets, especially in the Indo-Pacific where US forces have to contend with China's growing missile force, but an adversary can't target every piece of concrete in the region.

Logwood, who has put many hours of testing the aircraft's capabilities, G-force, speed, temperature, and altitude, said: "We have landed this aircraft on some fields that would jar your teeth, and this aircraft just says, 'That's all you got?'"

The Sky Warden has "plug and play technology," he said. It has a modular design, which means new systems can be quickly integrated into the aircraft. There are ten hardpoints capable of carrying a range of weapons and other technologies.

While there are two seats in the Sky Warden, it's a single-pilot aircraft in which all of its systems are designed to be accessible by one person and easy to learn.

And its cost-per-hour of flight, Rambeau said, is less than $1,000 per hour, one of the cheaper cost estimates of the Air Force's fleet. He added that L3Harris was in conversation with potential international customers across the world as well.

Below the wings of the Sky Warden, Logwood noted, were its dummy AGM 114 Hellfire missiles, as well as ISR sensors and arrays. If another mission pod is needed, it can be bolted and connected to the plane.

The Sky Warden can be dissembled in under six hours and fit inside a C-17 cargo aircraft.

The program was originally contracted for 75 aircraft in a $3 billion deal; in 2023 and 2024, the Government Accountability Office issued reports urging the Pentagon to reconsider the number of aircraft needed, citing concerns the program wouldn't be as valuable as the US shifts from decades of counterterrorism operations featuring air superiority to near-peer adversary fights.

Rambeau cited the aircraft's potential international sales as examples "to dispel the thought that this is only applicable for counterinsurgency," saying that those customers were looking at the aircraft for a variety of purposes.

While Sky Warden is capable of taking off and landing almost anywhere, Rambeau and Logwood said it would need to be modified for carrier-based operations. The aircraft requires a distance of about 1,200 feet. For fighters and bombers, the required runway length tends to be thousands of feet.

The original Skyraider earned its legendary reputation by protecting downed airmen in Vietnam. Unlike jets that couldn't stay in the area, the Skyraiders could loiter for long periods of time and bring massive firepower for continuous suppressing fire until helicopters could come in for rescue operations.

Skyraider pilot Maj. Bernard Fisher famously landed his plane through withering enemy fire at a battle-scarred airstrip littered with debris and destroyed aircraft, rescued a downed airman, and flew back out after taking multiple hits to his aircraft during a 1966 fight at Ashau. Fisher received the Medal of Honor for his actions.

The Air Force is hoping the new Skyraiders will provide the same kind of exceptional support for troops in future fights.

• Performance Drone Works is an Alabama-based company that's pushing domestic-made drones forward.
• PDW leadership spoke with BI about production process, challenges, and what technologies are needed.
• The company was born out of a televised drone racing league. It now makes military drones.

More and more American drone companies are sprouting up as the tech takes over civilian and military sectors in a big way.

The Ukraine war has been an eye-opener about what drones can do in battle, and the Pentagon is leaning hard into the technology, as a planned Army overhaul shows.

With increased demand comes new companies eager to become suppliers. But Performance Drone Works, or PDW, wasn't born from a sudden interest in uncrewed warfare. Instead, it came from the colorful quadcopters and flight courses of the televised Drone Racing League, where talented pilots would fly drones through complex obstacle courses at speeds up to 90 mph.

From drone racing to battlefield tech

PDW is an offshoot of the famed international racing league. The company set out six years ago to address the lack of US suppliers developing cutting-edge robotics, Ryan Gury, the company's CEO and co-founder, told Business Insider. All of the drones flown by the league's pilots are the same and made by DRL, and that is where Gury came in: drone design.

Now PDW is making drones for the military.

The priority is to make drones, like their flagship C100, and other technologies, "that are small and tactical and to be deployed by single units," Gury said. "That's our thesis."

The C100 is a lightweight quadcopter that's designed to fit in a rucksack and can fly over 70 minutes, up to 40mph, with a 10-pound payload. The latter can be adjusted based on mission requirements. PDW is also planning to debut a new, smaller, first-person-view drone this summer. The company announced over $15 million in C100 contracts and sales to the US Army in December.

For many years, combat drones were large, fixed-wing aircraft costing millions, but there's a growing interest in small, inexpensive uncrewed aerial systems that can be employed down to the squad level, that warfighters could carry on their person, even in their pockets. The Ukraine war has shown that small UAS platforms can do battlefield surveillance, strike missions, bombing runs, and more.

Key to advancing that aim and fielding drones en masse are affordable systems at scale, close and flexible relationships with the Department of Defense, and a reliable domestic supply chain that is not dependent on foreign components.

A booming business

PDW is based in Huntsville, Alabama, where the rate of production on C100s has exceeded expectations. They've outgrown the factory they thought would last a few years in just eight or nine months.

"A year ago, at our board, we were mulling, 'Can we produce 30 a month?'" retired Gen. Tony Thomas of US Special Operations Command, now chairman of the PDW Board, said. Now the company is making 70 a month, and soon, it'll double that. For their upcoming FPV product, Gury said he expects numbers exceeding the present production figures.

Testing occurs throughout PDW's drone-making process, Dylan Hamm, PDW's chief technology officer who built small drones while serving as a Navy SEAL, told BI. Testing involves everything from making sure the drone has the desired payload capacity to evaluating weather, temperature, altitude, terrain, and countermeasure conditions.

"We test our drones every day," he said. "Whether it's at the flight test facility qualifying that they meet our design targets or actually taking them out to field events."

Drone-making requires flexibility given the rapidly evolving battlespace. There's much being learned from the electronic warfare countermeasure systems and the quick pace of innovation occurring in Ukraine. "When you have these systems in these complex operating environments that are constantly changing, we have to be ready to adapt," Hamm said.

Designing systems for new fights

PDW has US veterans across its workforce and leadership — 20% and 63%, respectively. In conversations with BI, PDW staff who had served talked about the role of the drone in combat, the need to work closely with individual warfighters on these systems, and the quickened pace of adaptation and evolution. 

Veterans bring a unique perspective to defense companies, but on cutting-edge systems, they have to look beyond their own experiences.

"If we're designing the system for the wars that Dylan and I fought a couple of years ago, we're behind," PDW's Chief Revenue Officer Chuck McGraw, another former SEAL, told BI.

The kind of fighting that has been seen in Ukraine has shown that the future of war is going to be very different from past conflicts. Matt Higgins, one of PDW's co-founders, said that "the fact that you can take a $1,000 drone and take out an $8 million tank is an asymmetrical advantage that the world will never unsee."

Drones and other UAS like loitering munitions have changed the game. The question now isn't what can these systems do but whether the US has the industrial capacity to keep up.

PDW's C100 is engineered and manufactured entirely in the US and doesn't contain any Chinese-made parts; the majority of the drone's parts come from American companies. The US military can't just grab DJI drones off the shelf, and that complicates procurement. Military leadership is eager to strengthen domestic industry for drones but also for other weapons, ammunition, and assets.

Gury and Thomas highlighted the growing number of new companies in the defense industry, specifically ones that are working on drones, artificial intelligence and autonomous capabilities, and other future warfare elements. Thomas said it's a really frenzied environment, a time when there's "a real animus" to move away from legacy systems that may not win the next war and really "get onto transformational capabilities."

• US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a memo on sweeping changes for the Army.
• The focus on future warfare includes AI, drones, ammunition stockpiles, and force restructures.
• The Army and larger military under President Trump have been about the ideas of lethality and readiness.

Less crewed helicopters, more cheap drone swarms. That's just one of the directives listed in a memo from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on sweeping changes to the US Army.

Hegseth envisions a future Army in which drone swarms capable of overwhelming enemies replace crewed helicopters and augment the remainder of that fighting force. There's much more to the plan though.

The defense secretary's memo addressed to Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll was shared on Thursday and included strategic transformations, force restructuring, and cuts to certain programs and systems. The plan represents one of the largest Army overhauls since the Cold War, and the initiative is expected to cost billions.

Some planned changes, like plans to give every division 1,000 drones within the next two years, have clear timelines and immediate impacts. Others, such as "modernizing language training programs to improve mission effectiveness," are vague.

Drones, ammunition, and the Indo-Pacific

Hegseth has directed Driscoll to "transform the Army now for future warfare."

Within the next two years, every Army division will have uncrewed aerial systems. Counter-UAS systems, too, should be integrated into maneuver platoons by then and maneuver companies by the following year, 2027.

By 2027, the Army should also be fielding long-range missiles that can strike moving land and maritime targets. Some Army systems that could fit that bill include the surface-to-surface Precision Strike Missile (PrSM), the Mid-Range Capability Typhon system, and the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon.

The service should also achieve dominance over the electromagnetic spectrum and air-littoral spaces, both of which have been deemed critical subdomains for future wars, and artificial intelligence-driven command and control at the Army's theater, corps, and division headquarters.

Among the directives is a call to "modernize the organic industrial base to generate the ammunition stockpiles necessary to sustain national defense during wartime," with a goal of full operations by 2028. Driscoll recently told BI that strengthening the defense industrial base and deepening the Army's magazine was a priority for him, especially when thinking about a possible war with China, an Indo-Pacific power and top rival.

In line with that thinking, the memo directs the Army to strengthen its forward presence in the Indo-Pacific by expanding the Army's caches of warfighting equipment, conducting military exercises with allies and partners, and rotating deployments in the region. US President Donald Trump, Hegseth, Driscoll, and other officials have all identified countering China as a top priority.

"The President gave us a clear mission: achieve peace through strength," Hegseth wrote in the memo. "To achieve this, the US Army must prioritize defending our homeland and deterring China in the Indo-Pacific region."

The emphasis on heavily transforming the Army ahead of 2027 raises questions about the motivations. Chinese leader Xi Jinping has directed the Chinese People's Liberation Army to be ready to execute an invasion of Taiwan by 2027. Though that goal does not mean action is guaranteed, US military officials have used China's deadline as a readiness guide.

'A leaner, more lethal force'

Hegseth and others in the Trump administration have highlighted their intentions to cut what they deem as wasteful spending in the Pentagon. The Army memo goes into that but still leaves some questions unanswered.

The defense secretary is instructing the Army to substantially rework its force structure, which includes merging headquarters to synchronize kinetic and non-kinetic fires, implementing space-based capabilities, and adopting uncrewed systems.

As already noted, Hegseth's memo also includes a plan to "reduce and restructure crewed attack helicopter formations and augment with inexpensive drone swarms capable of overwhelming adversaries." It also includes plans to "divest outdated formations, including select armor and aviation units" across the Army.

Major reforms are intended for some Army headquarters, including the merging of Army Futures Command and Doctrine Command into one and Forces Command and US Army North and South into a single entity focused on homeland defense and Western allies.

Additionally, some weapons systems and capabilities deemed obsolete are being axed, including certain crewed aircraft programs, ground vehicles like the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle, or Humvee, and outdated UAVs. Driscoll's staff recently told BI that some legacy systems could be on the chopping block in pursuit of lethality.

Workforce reduction is also a priority and falls in line with larger priorities from Hegseth and Trump. Information in the memo on this is sparse. It calls on the Army to "optimize force structure to achieve maximum readiness" and "prioritize merit and skill needed for today's battlefield across the uniform and civilian workforce."

Revisions to civilian hiring and firing policies and cuts to general officer positions are planned.

When asked about Hegseth's priority for a "learner, more lethal force" and what that means for the workforce, Col. David Butler, communications adviser to Chief of Staff of the Army, told BI that the likely intention is to make cuts to "staff and bureaucracies," not maneuver or warfighting formations.

Butler said Army leadership believes cutting those areas will lighten the organizational structure and "better serve the warfighter."

Conversations around a "leaner" Army have been a major topic in recent weeks. Earlier this month, sources told Military.com the Army was quietly considering a reduction of up to 90,000 active-duty troops. The Army labeled the story "wrong," writing on X that it was "building more combat power while reducing staff and overhead."

Hard decisions for the Army

Many of these changes indicate sweeping plans and reforms for the Army. Talking to Fox News on Friday, Driscoll said that while "these are hard decisions," especially ones around legacy systems and weapons reform. That said, "the old way of doing war with no longer suffice," he explained.

The Army secretary said he and the service have been "empowered to go make the hard decisions and the hard changes to reallocate our dollars to best position our soldiers to be the most lethal that they can be."

• The US industrial base isn't sufficiently prepared for a long, drawn-out conflict with China, the Army secretary said.
• Daniel Driscoll said addressing the issue was an immediate concern.
• The Trump administration has indicated that fixing defense industry problems is a top priority.

A war with top US rival China could be a long conflict that would strain resources and capabilities, and the US Army secretary has concerns that American industry isn't ready.

Last week, Secretary of the Army Daniel Driscoll spoke to Business Insider about the Army's priorities amid plans to shift Pentagon focus to the Indo-Pacific region. Both President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth have identified the theater and countering China as a focus.

Driscoll said that the Army's immediate concerns when it comes to readying for a war with China are "to strengthen our defense industrial base and increase our magazine depth."

He argued that US industry, which would be critical in a lengthy fight between China and the US, had atrophied in recent decades. Shipbuilding has received a lot of attention, but other industries that are crucial to US warfighting capabilities need revitalization.

"If we go to war with a near-peer or a peer like China, our ability to manufacture at scale over time is what will help us win wars," said Driscoll, a former armor officer.

American military officials and experts have previously said that the US industrial base would struggle to keep up with building new weapons, ships, and aircraft and repairing damaged ones at the pace needed. Those concerns have been exacerbated by China's industrial capacity.

In 2023, a study from the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank based on a series of wargames of an Indo-Pacific conflict, like a war triggered by a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, found that US munition expenditure would exceed stockpiles and manufacturing rate.

CSIS researcher Seth Jones said that the US would likely run out of some critical munitions.

Last year, Chairman John Moolenaar of the House Select Committee on the CCP, told Fox News about a wargaming exercise in which China emerged victorious.

What we learned in a protracted war, our defense industrial base does not have the resources it needs to win that war," Congressman Moolenaar, a Michigan Republican, said. "It's stretched thin with different regional conflicts around the world," he added, "and we need to make sure we shore up so that we can win a war if it were ever necessary."

The war in Ukraine has shown that protracted conflicts turn on ammunition availability, everything from artillery shells to air defense interceptor missiles. Services and industries have begun working to increase output, but it's a work in progress.

Earlier this month, a report from The Heritage Foundation think tank argued the US must revitalize its defense industrial base to deter China, and that requires regulatory reform, funding reallocation, and reduction of procurement uncertainty so that American industry can actually meet expected demand.

"To revitalize the defense industrial base, it is critical that Congress, the Department of Defense, and industry implement and adopt policies that increase output, encourage innovation, and secure supply chains," over half a dozen researchers said. "Failure to do so will jeopardize America's ability to deter China or, if necessary, go to war," they wrote.

Driscoll's comments fall in line with the focuses of Trump, Hegseth, and others who, since the administration took over in January, have signaled that fixing industry problems is a prime concern.

When Hegseth was confirmed, he called for rebuilding the US military by matching threats to capabilities.

He said that "this means reviving our defense industrial base, reforming our acquisition process, passing a financial audit, and rapidly fielding emerging technologies."

Revitalizing the defense industry isn't something that is going to happen overnight. Many of these problems run deep, going back decades, and have persisted despite previous attempts to address them.

If China and the US do go toe-to-toe in the Pacific, Driscoll said the Army would remain "the backbone of operations" for large-scale ground combat operations and continue innovating to support the larger US military.

"We are taking it very seriously," Driscoll said. "Whatever role the Army has against China, we believe it will be one of the core roles for what will likely be a long, drawn-out war. Once everyone settles into their defensive postures, it will be the Army that helps sustain the US."

• A US Army officer broke the men's record for running a mile in a bomb suit.
• Chewning-Kulick, an explosive ordinance disposal officer, ran it in just over seven minutes in a 62-pound suit.
• He said the event demonstrated the importance of EODs remaining ready to quickly mitigate explosive threats.

A US Army explosive ordnance disposal officer has broken the world record for running a mile in a bomb suit by 20 seconds.

The Army said Wednesday that Capt. Travis G. Chewning-Kulick, wearing a heavy 62-pound bomb suit, ran the mile in an impressive seven minutes and four seconds last week at Phantom Warrior Stadium at Fort Cavazos in Texas. 

His run beat the previous record of 7:24:21 set by British soldier Mark Gibbs in 2017. Gibbs has also completed a half-marathon in a full bomb suit, running that in two hours and 23 minutes.

Chewning-Kulick's Guinness World Record is currently pending official verification, which can take months, but his time was marked by multiple witnesses.

He said he was motivated to break the record by soldiers in his unit. Bomb suits, like the one he wore, are hot and heavy and designed to protect bomb-disposal technicians from explosive blasts. 

Chewning-Kulick is currently the commander of the 752nd Ordnance Company, part of the US Department of Defense's larger EOD formation and the 20th Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, Explosives (CBRNE) Command focused on identifying and safely eliminating explosives and other hazards. 

The physical fitness of EOD techs, he said, is critical for their roles. 

"The EOD Soldier must be able to easily keep pace with the conventional and nonconventional units they support so they can rapidly and safety mitigate any explosive threat to enable the uninterrupted completion of the mission," Chewning-Kulick said.

EOD techs have some of the most dangerous jobs in the military. The small, elite group tasked with disarming and disposing of explosives need to have immense technical knowledge and mental and physical fortitude.

"There's a lot of steps," an Air Force EOD technician previously told Business Insider. "When you mess one up, you die."

Explosive ordnance disposal is an extremely tough job that requires both physical and mental fortitude.

Another EOD tech from the Marines previously told BI "there's been times when I was standing over something that could kill me and I was there trying to picture all the choices I made in life that got me to that moment."

Bomb suit runs are not uncommon, but it's rare to set records.

In 2021, Army Capt. Kaitlyn Hernandez shattered the women's record, wearing what was said to be a 96-pound bomb suit. She ran a mile in 10 minutes and 23 seconds. The previous women's record was 11 minutes and six seconds in 2013. 

At the time, Hernandez said that overcoming the challenges of the suit were largely mental. "It's usually a split-second — any time I run and start feeling sorry for myself, I just have to get over it and say it's not that bad," she said.

• Tanks may not play the same role in wars dominated by drones, the US Army secretary said.
• Debates around the future of the tank have been reignited by the Ukraine war.
• Secretary Driscoll said tanks will have to be positioned more defensively and may not be first into the breach.

The tank isn't dead, US Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll told Business Insider. It has a role in the Army, but how it's used in battle will need to change as threats evolve.

The heavy destruction of tanks and armored fighting vehicles in Ukraine has led to speculation that the main battle tank is obsolete. Critics have said this weapon, which has played a role in countless conflicts since its emergence during World War I, may no longer have a place on battlefields rife with classic threats like mines and newer ones like anti-tank missiles and exploding drones.

But the Army's top civilian official says critics have it wrong.

"Where people have started to predict the death of the tank, I think they're misunderstanding what probably will happen," the former armor officer said.

Driscoll, now two months into his job as the secretary of the Army, was in Alaska last week to observe the Army's Arctic-trained soldiers, members of the 11th Airborne Division training for cold-weather combat in one of the harsher Indo-Pacific environments.

While talking with BI about the challenges of future war, including space and cyber assets and uncrewed systems, Driscoll noted that the way the tank goes to war will have to change due to the threats it faces.

In a potential future conflict, Army tanks won't necessarily be the first assets to hit the front line, to lead breach operations. Soldiers may not see the kind of armor-led combined-arms assaults they've seen in previous conflicts.

Instead, autonomous vehicles and other uncrewed systems supported by other assets would be the first to engage. "The tank will sit back out of reach of these drones, or at least in more defensible positions," Driscoll said.

Once a path has been opened, it can enter the fight, providing the protected firepower it has long brought to the battlefield.

"Once you're able to break through with autonomous vehicles and robots and cyber warfare and help from space assets," the Army secretary said, "you will then probably start to see a lot of the most powerful weapons on planet Earth, which is the M1A2 tank, roll forward and continue to get in the fight."

Driscoll's comments speak to a growing interest across the US military in using uncrewed systems for first contact. Drone operators and US military officials have focused on drones as a way to reduce risks to human personnel, whether that be in combat operations, gathering intelligence, or assessing threats.

But above all, his remarks highlight the ongoing concerns about the vulnerability of the tank to drones, anti-tank weapons, mines, and other threats, as well as operations without the kind of air superiority the US enjoyed in its wars in the Middle East, and the need to adapt.

Throughout the war in Ukraine, combat footage has repeatedly shown small quadcopters and other drones dropping bombs on battle tanks or flying in through open hatches and exploding.

Cheap drones worth a few hundred bucks have taken out expensive tanks worth millions, ushering in a whole new era of asymmetric warfare. Loitering munitions, another kind of uncrewed aerial system, have likewise been devastating.

And it isn't just Soviet-designed tanks that have fallen prey to drones and loitering munitions. Western tanks, too, have been lost, including American-made Abrams.

The US supplied Ukraine with 31 Abrams tanks, while other NATO nations supplied Leopards and Challengers. These tanks have been of decreased utility. They are high-value targets, the tank-on-tank battles they were built for are not happening frequently, and there simply aren't enough of them.

Kyiv's forces have gotten more from armored fighting vehicles like the Bradley, even using one to beat a Russian T-90M. Ukraine received significantly more of these, making losses more acceptable. Crews still see value in their tanks though.

In response to the drone threat, both sides began employing countermeasures to defend battle tanks from drones, such as putting metal cages on turrets and around vulnerable areas. Both the Abrams and the Bradleys have received these upgrades. Electronic warfare has also been heavily employed.

While the tank's future role has been called into question, the specific values the weapon brings to battle continue to be recognized. That said, the tank and its tactics are likely to be an ongoing discussion for militaries.

In August 2023, over a year into the war in Ukraine, Army officers and experts wrote that the tank's lethality, survivability, and mobility as part of combined arms operations, as well as the ability to place them on land anywhere around the world, are of tremendous value.

The authors also noted the importance of teamwork to identify and counter weaknesses. "In the US Army, the tank is not a solo performer. It constitutes part of an ensemble of capabilities organic to the armored brigade combat team that both supplement the tank's inherent qualities and mitigate its vulnerabilities," they wrote.

"Such teamwork," they said, "ensures the continued relevancy of the tank despite the proliferation of unmanned aircraft systems, loitering munitions, precision artillery, antitank guided missiles, and electromagnetic spectrum considerations."

Electronic warfare, mobile air defenses, and other capabilities could be important to keeping the tank in the fight. The authors of the report, titled "The Tank is Dead … Long Live the Tank," said that drones and other threats "necessitate adaptation rather than outright removal from the battlefield" for the tank.

The US and other top militaries have also continued to invest in battle tank programs while prioritizing better armor protection and maneuverability. The AbramsX, a General Dynamics Land Systems design concept for a next-generation Abrams tank, for example, was designed to be lighter, more agile, and more survivable.

The US Army is also employing lessons from Ukraine in training, boosting its response to increased drone proliferation.

Army leaders have previously told BI that it's important for soldiers to recognize the threat of uncrewed systems on the battlefield, explaining that "you have to look up, you have to look 360" degrees and increase situational awareness to avoid being caught by surprise in battle.

• US Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll visited soldiers in Alaska training for Arctic warfare.
• He praised their focus on readiness and cold weather tactics, saying he wants more of that.
• Military leaders have made warfighter lethality a top priority.

What does the US Army secretary want to see more of? Soldiers out in the field, "out in the world figuring out what we need to do as an Army," not making PowerPoints, he told Business Insider.

US Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll, a former armor officer and Iraq war veteran who became the service's top civilian official two months ago, visited the 11th Airborne Division in Alaska this week.

The visit sent a message about Driscoll's priorities.

In Alaska, where even now, in spring, temperatures are down in the 30s (in the winter, they can be 30 below), US soldiers are tirelessly readying to meet the challenges of Arctic warfare, a necessity as the US attempts to shift its focus to the Indo-Pacific.

On a call with BI, Driscoll and Maj. Gen. Joseph Hillbert, the commander of US Army Alaska and the 11th Airborne Division, spoke about how the unit's soldiers and their work in Alaska align with the goals of US military leadership under President Donald Trump, which are all about lethality, a popular Pentagon buzzword that basically boils down to warfighter readiness.

"Everything that I saw up here, that the 11th Airborne was doing, was focused on" several key questions, Driscoll said. "If we get into conflict," how will the tools the Army has help "keep us alive and help us kill the enemy?"

Soldiers in Alaska, which BI previously observed in action, are out testing how equipment, weapons, aircraft, gear, and more are impacted by really low temperatures, harsh conditions, and regular exposure to the unforgiving elements.

"They were not focused on things like PowerPoint slides and how they could deliver better work products to the Pentagon," Driscoll said of the 11th Airborne Division, telling BI that "they were out there kind of suffering in the cold on behalf of their nation."

Trial and error out in the field and programs like soldier touch points for immersive testing and feedback have long been considered important to innovation and iterative development.

PowerPoint presentations, on the other hand, while a useful tool, are often seen as the hallmarks of uninspiring, morale-lowering military briefings and trainings that can oversimplify or unnecessarily complicate ideas and concepts.

Such criticisms have been around for over a decade now. James Mattis, years before he became Trump's first defense secretary, back when he was still a general with the Marine Corps, said that "PowerPoint makes us stupid."

At that same 2010 speaking event, H.R. McMaster, an Army general who years later became Trump's national advisor, said PowerPoint is "dangerous because it can create the illusion of understanding and the illusion of control." He said that "some problems in the world are not bullet-izable."

Driscoll and other Army leaders want to signal that field activities are important. They not only promote warfighter readiness, but they also allow decision-makers to get feedback for next steps and procurement plans.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, along with other US military officials, have made readiness and lethality top priorities. These have also been goals for previous administrations, and this nebulous expression is used to evaluate defense programs.

That focus within the Department of Defense has come with cuts to programs deemed unnecessary, such as diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, efforts to revive the industrial base, and budget changes at the Pentagon.

During Hegseth's nomination, he called for reviving the warrior ethos in the military and has since pushed that.

"We are American warriors. We will defend our country. Our standards will be high, uncompromising, and clear. The strength of our military is our unity and our shared purpose," Hegseth said following his confirmation. He has since advocated for tossing things like DEI and climate change initiatives.

In Alaska, soldiers have been honing skills needed for Arctic warfare. The Army has increasingly recognized the region's strategic significance, especially as rivals Russia and China become increasingly active. The Army released its Arctic strategy in 2021 and has been working to refine those capabilities.

During their Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center training last year, the 11th Airborne and troops from over a dozen international allies and partners ran wargames, adapting to freezing temperatures and unpredictable conditions.

The harsh environment prompts adjustments to systems — everything from gear to guns and vehicles and helicopters have to be modified and monitored.

Driscoll highlighted some of those adaptations during the conversation with BI, noting that many things — rubber, fuel, touch screens on devices — are affected by the cold weather.

"What the units up here are doing throughout the entire winter is taking out different pieces of equipment and testing how they'll operate," he said. That's a critical learning process for the force as soldiers revive their winter warfare skills after decades of fighting wars in the Middle East.

During his visit to Alaska, Driscoll observed and participated in an air assault and received a capabilities briefing on Alaska's strategic importance. He also witnessed other 11th Airborne Division capabilities, such as its specialized cold-weather vehicles.

More than assets, operating in the Arctic also requires a specific mindset from personnel to innovate in real time, soldiers told BI at last year's warfighting exercise. It's a very tough operating environment.

Maintaining a ready fighting force in Alaska is part of the US military's focus on the Indo-Pacific, as well as the Arctic. Both areas have been identified by leadership as strategically important for the Army and the larger US military as a whole.

• Business Insider talked to US Army Secretary Driscoll during his visit to Alaska to see soldiers training for Arctic warfare.
• Driscoll told BI his focus is lethality, aligned with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
• That includes next-generation technologies, future warfare, and training.

Daniel Driscoll is only two months into his new job as the 26th Army secretary, but the 38-year-old former armor officer and Iraq War veteran knows what he wants: lethality.

Anything in the US Army that doesn't advance that goal could be out, he told Business Insider on a call this week. That could mean changes from training to force structure, even the tossing out of legacy systems, his staff said.

Lethality is a guiding light for the Department of Defense under Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. It was also a core objective — and talking point — in the earlier Trump and Biden administrations, though with different interpretations. The subjective measuring stick is what programs are being evaluated against.

From the military's perspective, lethality is simply about being able to effectively defeat an enemy. There are different views, however, about how to fortify a fighting force to achieve that.

"What has occurred is a hollowing out of a lot of the tools that we have given our soldiers," Driscoll, formerly an officer with the Army's 10th Mountain Division, told BI during his official visit to Alaska this week to observe the 11th Airborne Division.

Decision-makers in DC "have optimized for nearly everything other than the soldier in their decision-making," he said, arguing that the acquisition process for new capabilities and programs needs an overhaul and that the individual soldier's ability to effectively engage the enemy has to be at the forefront of every decision.

That push may force a reassessment of the US Army's older systems that may be vulnerable in a future fight.

Driscoll suggested cutting down training requirements for soldiers "to return to the core of things that they need to do to be good at their jobs," removing excess or unnecessary elements. "If it doesn't directly correlate with lethality, we're getting rid of it," he said.

What is lethality?

During President Donald Trump's first term in office, then-Defense Secretary James Mattis, a retired Marine Corps general, made building a more lethal fighting force a Pentagon priority. Lethality was also a common topic under the Biden administration, though the current administration has accused its predecessors of focusing too much on superfluous agendas.

Lethality is a go-to buzzword in the Pentagon lexicon and for longstanding Army programs. Project Manager Soldier Lethality, for instance, develops next-generation rifles and machine guns for soldiers. A cross-functional team of the same name designs systems to help soldiers close with and destroy the enemy. The term has also been the subject of numerous professional panels and research papers by soldiers.

For this administration, Trump, Hegseth, and other military leaders are all-in on tossing anything they see as nonessential for warfighter readiness. That has included diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, climate change initiatives, and other projects.

"Everything starts and ends with warriors in training and on the battlefield," Hegseth said this week at the Army War College. "We are leaving wokeness and weakness behind and refocusing on lethality, meritocracy, accountability, standards, and readiness."

Programs have been shut down. Billions of dollars in contracts have been cut. Still, many of the proposed plans are early concepts, and what exactly the significantly increased focus on lethality will mean for the future of the US military isn't clear yet, especially the nonlethal, non-combat roles that support other missions.

For the Army, Driscoll said, he wants to see improved combat readiness. Talking to BI, he highlighted the 11th Airborne Division's constant work on adjusting equipment, weapons, gear, and vehicles to the cold temperatures and harsh conditions of the Arctic.

"They were not focused on things like PowerPoint slides and how they could deliver better work products to the Pentagon," he said of the 11th Airborne Division. Instead, they are "out in the world figuring out what we need to do as an Army."

Lt. Col. Jeff Tolbert, Driscoll's public affairs advisor, told BI that the heightened emphasis on lethality could mean doing away with legacy gear and vehicles that aren't needed for future wars, such as older armored vehicles and command posts that are detectable and targetable with electronic warfare.

Instead, next-generation technologies — drones and other uncrewed systems, robotics, human-machine integration, improved night vision gear, and more maneuverable vehicles and formations — are a top interest for the Army. Communication integration that better informs commanders to make decisions is crucial, too.

The Army has been focused on these new emerging systems, learning much from the Ukraine war about the need for newer technologies, drones, the role of the tank on the battlefield, and mechanized warfare. Driscoll was recently in Europe, where he said many lessons are being learned from the war, now in its third year.

Artificial intelligence will also help with lethality in future warfare. Driscoll hypothesized that within 12 months, "you'll start to see generative AI showing up, maybe in some limited use cases, on the battlefield."

Driscoll served in the Army from 2007 to 2011, leaving the service as a lieutenant. In 2009, he deployed to Baghdad, Iraq, in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. After leaving active duty, Driscoll attended Yale Law School, where he was a classmate of Vice President JD Vance. After receiving the Army secretary nomination in late January, he was confirmed as the service's top civilian official in late February.

In his first message to the force after confirmation, the Army secretary said: "You are a part of the most lethal land-based fighting force in the history of the world."

"But," Driscoll continued, "administrative burdens and unnecessary distractions have taken you away from what matters most. We will refocus, eliminating distractions and training you to fight and win in the most contested environments. Your country demands no less."

• US Marines are deploying new anti-ship and anti-drone systems to the Philippines.
• NMESIS and MADIS will be placed in key areas for a joint exercise.
• It's the first NMESIS deployment to the Philippines and the second MADIS live-fire demo since it was fielded late last year.

The US Marine Corps is deploying two new combat systems designed to counter key airborne and maritime threats to a strategic ally in the Western Pacific.

The Marines announced the deployment of the Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS) and Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) last week.

The anti-ship and counter-drone systems will both be in the Philippines during the annual Balikatan exercise, which aims to strengthen joint US-Philippine operations.

Ship killers

NMESIS is a land-based anti-ship Naval Strike Missile launcher on a Joint Light Tactical Vehicle. First fielded late last year with the 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment, the weapon is designed to provide enhanced sea denial capability. Its involvement in Balikatan, the Marines said, was to strengthen deterrence and add to larger coastal defense strategies.

This marks its first deployment to the Philippines, which Col. John G. Lehane, the commanding officer of the 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment, called "a significant step in the right direction for the reaffirmation and strengthening of US-Philippine relations."

During Balikatan, the NMESIS will participate in simulated fires exercises during Maritime Key Terrain Security Operations in Northern Luzon and the Batanes Islands, with several launchers transported to multiple islands in the Batanes chain.

The Batanes are located in the Luzon Strait between the Philippines and Taiwan. The waterways there connect the Philippine Sea and South China Sea. In previous Balikatan exercises, US and Philippine forces have practiced securing these islands as strategically important locations near Taiwan and mainland China.

Anti-ship capabilities are recognized as essential in a Pacific fight given the role that naval forces are expected to play. China, a top rival in the region, has the world's largest navy. And it's shipbuilding juggernaut is continuing to build more vessels.

Norwegian defense firm Kongsberg makes the Naval Strike Missile fired by NMESIS. Last November, it received a contract worth roughly $900 million from the Navy and Marines for the missile.

Drone killers

MADIS is a ground-based air defense system that like NMESIS is mounted on a JLTV. It will be involved in live-fire training, its second after a training event in Hawaii earlier this year. Marines with the 3rd Littoral Anti-Air Battalion of the 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment received the weapon last December.

Designed to target uncrewed aerial systems, or drones, "MADIS is a unique weapon system that enhances both the survivability and lethality of 3d MLR by extending the reach of the airspace over which the formation has control, and by giving tactical flexibility to the friendly elements operating within our area of operations," Lehane said.

The 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment was established for combat operations in austere and distributed maritime environments; essentially, it was made for war in the Pacific.

When paired with NMESIS, MADIS helps increase the survivability of US and partner forces conducting maritime strikes by defending them from enemy drones and UAVs, Lehane said. During the exercise, the Philippine forces will also be conducting a demonstration of their counter-UAS systems.

The conflict in Ukraine and rapid technological development in this space has highlighted the importance of drones, as well as the capabilities to effectively counter them.

The deployment of both systems for Balikatan is an important element of ongoing security efforts between the US and the Philippines amid Chinese aggression in the region, particularly toward Philippine vessels operating in the South China Sea, as well as concerns of a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan. These are often seen as potential flashpoints.

This year's Balikatan marks the 40th iteration of the exercise, the largest bilateral training between Washington and Manila.

• Drones have seen widespread use by both sides in Russia's war against Ukraine.
• Different types of drones include aerial, ground, and naval, all with specific models and uses.
• Drone operators have been working adapt to the new technology.

Drones are an emerging technology in modern combat. Evolutions in these remotely piloted uncrewed systems have been radically affecting the way war is fought.

Although drones have been used in past conflicts, Russia's war against Ukraine has been marked by a rise in drone warfare, both the employment of uncrewed systems and the development of countermeasures such as electronic warfare.

What are drones?

Drones are vehicles or systems that operate remotely or autonomously without a human being physically on board to drive them. They come in aerial, ground, maritime surface, and undersea varieties, and they are used for civilian, commercial, and military purposes.

They can be used for photography, videography, delivery, inspection and monitoring, intelligence gathering, surveillance, and reconnaissance, as well as precision strikes.

While drones have received attention for the role they play in Ukraine, they have also gotten a lot of interest in the civilian world. There was, for instance, a drone scare in New Jersey in December 2024 that turned out to be mostly hysteria, but it fueled a very long-overdue conversation about drones, including about the ones routinely flying around US military bases.

Earlier that month, the Pentagon unveiled a new strategy for dealing with the challenge of drones, particularly small aerial drones that can be easily acquired for both benign and malign purposes.

"These cheap systems are increasingly changing the battlefield, threatening US installations, and wounding or killing our troops," the secretary of defense wrote. And they have been becoming increasingly prolific.

These systems have been doing the jobs of snipers, combat aircraft, naval vessels, and even precision-guided munitions. In the Red Sea, the US Navy and its European allies have battled drone attacks accompanying anti-ship missiles. These attacks have come from air and sea, targeting both military and commercial vessels.

These relatively low-cost systems are widely available, lowering the barrier to entry for capabilities that were once reserved for conventional militaries. Now they are being used by non-state actors and nation-states alike.

The future of war is expected to be robotic, with machines outnumbering human warfighters. A wide range of drones are already being employed in battle.

Many militaries are looking into purchasing a lot of drones that are cheap, attritable, and readily available or able to be mass-produced on a budget so that drones are available even for squad-level operations.

There continues to be interest in larger, more sophisticated systems as well, such as uncrewed naval vessels capable of supporting traditional warships and uncrewed combat aircraft to fight alongside piloted planes.

Militaries are also exploring new technologies to drive these assets, such as artificial intelligence.

Aerial drones

Uncrewed aerial vehicles, or UAVs, are drones capable of flight. They are typically launched by a UAV operator, and the ranges and altitudes at which they can fly depend on the model.

Some of the most well-known military UAVs are the large, fixed-wing intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance drones and uncrewed combat aerial vehicles, or UCAVs.

Fixed-wing ISR drones include assets like the US military's Globe Hawk or Russia's Orlan drones.

Combat drones include drone platforms like the US military's Predator and Reaper drones. The latter can not only conduct surveillance but is also armed with Hellfire missiles. There are heavy fixed-wing UCAVs like Russia's Okhotnik, and there are several stealth drones like the RQ-170 or emerging Chinese CH-7.

Among these drones are maritime assets. Several countries, such as Iran, China, and Turkey, have actually built drone carriers. Some argue the US military needs drone carriers, too, though the US is looking into launching drones from traditional flattops.

Other fixed-wing drone assets include collaborative combat aircraft, or "loyal wingmen," that fly alongside piloted aircraft. The Air Force has been working on this technology, as well as exploring the potential of AI-piloted fighter aircraft.

While fixed-wing drones take off like airplanes, there are also vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) drones. These include classic designs like helicopters, tail-sitters, tilt rotors, etc., as well as innovative engineering such as articulating-wing designs.

Quadcopter drones and related hexacopters and octacopters are common VTOL UAV models that have been everything from Christmas presents to combat platforms.

The small combat quadcopters, sometimes called first-person-view, or FPV, drones are usually flown by an operator wearing a headset or using a screen and can be used for scouting enemies, dropping explosives, or flying into targets and detonating.

Some commercially available models, like DJI Mavic drones, have seen extensive use in Ukraine, where operators strap plastic explosives or RPG warheads to the drones.

These drones can be piloted through various means, including radio frequencies, a fiber-optic cable that prevents jamming, and artificial intelligence, although autonomy in drones is still limited to terminal guidance targeting and hasn't seen widespread adoption yet.

Other types of aerial drones include loitering munitions, which fly high above targets before crashing into them. Some common types of loitering munitions include the Switchblade, Lancets, and the Iranian-made Shaheds. All have been used in Ukraine.

Ground drones

Uncrewed, or unmanned, ground vehicles, or UGVs, are drones that operate on land. They're often used for transporting supplies or weapons, clearing dangerous areas of threats, and executing casualty evacuations.

Most military ground drones are wheeled or tracked, resembling more complicated versions of remote-controlled cars. Via a controller, an operator can drive the drone over various terrains. The US military has prioritized using UGVs for urban combat environments and subterranean places like caves and tunnels, as drones can keep personnel and military dogs out of harm's way.

Some UGVs are referred to as robot dogs. These quadrupedal robots have four legs and resemble a canine. These drones have been developed by the US, China, and Russia. Some robot dogs wield rifles or machine guns, while others feature cameras and sensors for intelligence-gathering. These drones have been employed in combat and security roles.

Other UGVs include things like the Air Force's unusual Throwbot, which is a football-size device that can record video and audio for reconnaissance and intelligence purposes.

Naval drones

Naval drones have a few variations, but they are typically defined as drones that operate in water. They can be used for missions in hard-to-reach areas or waterways that would be difficult to reach via ship, submarine, or divers.

Ones that sail on the surface can vary in size and payload but often look like boats. Ukraine, lacking a proper naval force, has used drone boats to devastate Russia's Black Sea Fleet during the war, sailing them into vessels in one-way explosive attacks.

The US Navy has experimented with drone boats that can conduct surveillance, as well as ones like the Ghost Overlord Fleet that can fire weapons and augment the conventional battle force.

US military leaders have seen these uncrewed naval assets, and others, as critical to building the kind of mass American forces would need against an adversary like China, which has the world's largest navy.

Uncrewed underwater vehicles, or UUVs, are submersible drones that operate underwater. There are a number of different UUVs varying depth, distance, and capability types depending on the model.

One of the larger UUVs being tested is the Manta Ray, built by Northrop Grumman. The drone is effectively submarine-sized and looks like a flat metal manta ray. It has recently completed in-water testing and can act as a torpedo, small submarine, or even work as a naval mine.

UUVs are especially useful for navigating waters with relative stealth to gather information in areas that could be inaccessible or dangerous for people or other maritime assets.

Naval drones are a growing area of interest. The US Navy's Task Force 59, located in Bahrain, is working on naval drones for surveillance around the waters of the Middle East. NATO also has launched a new Task Force X for naval drones aimed at combatting Russian aggression and preventing underwater sabotage.

How the US military uses drones

The US military has long used drones like the Reaper for surveillance operations; it lost one to Russian aggression in the Black Sea and has lost several to the Houthi rebels in Yemen. These platforms have also been key in counterterrorism strike missions.

Some other US military drones serve as unit-level airborne sensor platforms while other products like the pocket-sized Black Hornet drones provide individual and squad-level options.

Developing these uncrewed capabilities has been a priority for the US armed forces, but it's taken on increased urgency. The US military is working quickly to adapt drone technology across its service branches, especially as it takes note of the drones that have been used in the Ukraine war.

Special Operations Forces has been a leader due to its agile acquisition process and close relationships with defense industry partners that allow for faster iterations.

Other elements of the military are pursuing this technology as well. The Marine Corps, for instance, just recently created its new Attack Drone Team focused on drawing lessons from Ukraine.

A Marine general recently said that with the rise of drones, the longstanding adage "every Marine a rifleman" may need to change. It may be that future war demands they be something more, maybe a drone operator.

The US military has been looking at how drones can make operations safer for personnel, how to extend the military's reach, and what future warfare would look like with drones. And it isn't just the US military exploring these capabilities. Drone technology and artificial intelligence are considered critical for future war.

Counter-drone technology

The Pentagon has been pursuing new drone policies and initiatives to quickly adapt drones and counter-drone systems.

Last year, the Department of Defense launched a new strategy for countering drone threats in an effort to create common guidelines for the department amid the growing threat posed by the rise of uncrewed systems.

Earlier in 2024, three US soldiers were killed in a drone attack at a military outpost in Jordan. The Tower 22 attack highlighted the need for a comprehensive and standardized plan for counter-drone capabilities.

The Pentagon also has Replicator initiatives focused on developing and delivering thousands of all-domain attritable autonomous systems. Replicator's goal is to innovate with defense partners on uncrewed systems and integrate those technologies into the services. There is also a counter-drone element as well.

And the US military has its new Joint C-sUAS (Counter-small Unmanned Aircraft System) University, or JCU, which opened in late 2023 at Fort Sill in Oklahoma to teach troops how to combat hostile drones.

With the rise of drones, there has been greater interest in the development of countermeasures and anti-drone weapons. Counter-drone technology has been seen across the Ukraine war. Some is as low-tech as shotguns, while others are electronic warfare systems that can jam radio frequencies and disable drones.

Signal jamming and electronic warfare require constant innovation and adaptation for drone operators.

Drone careers

Militaries around the world are actively recruiting people to serve as combat drone operators. Ukraine's drone units have said technological, engineering, and even video gaming skills are useful for pilots, as they can quickly pick up the controls needed to operate a drone. Others have said musicians make good operators because of their fine motor skills.

Drone operators in the Army's special forces are working on how to make learning different types of drones easier, such as using similar controllers for multiple systems.

There are many drone operator positions in the US military. The Army is hiring tactical UAS operators for reconnaissance, surveillance, and targeting missions, and the Air Force is looking for trained remotely piloted aircraft pilots for systems like the MQ-9 Reaper and RQ-4 Global Hawk. The Marine Corps, too, is looking for small UAS operators. And the Navy has a relatively new Robotic Warfare Specialist position.

To take on one of these roles, an understanding of what capabilities a drone can bring to a fight and what countermeasures an operator will face is crucial.

• North Korea sent troops and weapons into Russia's war in Ukraine.
• Top US officials have suggested it could receive help with missiles and submarines in return.
• China appears to also be involved in a transactional relationship with Russia, a top admiral said.

Since North Korea went all-in on supporting Russia's war in Ukraine, sending weapons and even troops, US officials have been speculating what it could be receiving in return.

Last week, two top US military leaders in the Indo-Pacific region suggested that support could mean a host of potential wins for Pyongyang, from military capabilities to sidestepping sanctions.

At a US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the challenges and threats in the Indo-Pacific region, North Korea, Russia, and China were important topics of concern, particularly the deepening relationship between Pyongyang and Moscow.

The strategic partnership between the two countries, US Army Gen. Xavier Brunson, Commander of United Nations Command, Combined Forces Command, and US Forces Korea, said in his opening statement, has significantly shifted the status of the theater.

The relationship has presented new opportunities for North Korea to circumvent international sanctions, fill gaps in its military, and pursue a new status on the world stage.

That includes a share "of space, nuclear, and missile-applicable technology, expertise, and materials" from Russia, the general added, some of which will enable advancements in North Korea's arsenal over the next few years.

North Korea's nuclear forces have already been improving. The country has developed new intercontinental ballistic missiles for its nuclear warheads. Further support will only accelerate advancements.

Other expected gains, Brunson and US Navy Adm. Samuel Paparo, the leader of US Indo-Pacific Command, said, include air assets, surface-to-air missiles, and submarine technologies.

These would be in addition to the valuable experience in modern war North Korea is receiving, as well as critical intelligence on how its weapons and troops perform in battle. North Korea's heavy artillery and tactical ballistic missiles have seen use in Russia's brutal conflict against the Ukrainians.

The South Korea Institute for Defense Analyses recently presented new research indicating that Pyongyang may also be receiving billions of dollars for its part in the war.

Potential North Korean gains from its involvement are part of a significantly larger "transactional symbiosis" between North Korea, Russia, and China, Paparo said, "where each state fulfills the other state's weaknesses to mutual benefit of each state."

In China's case, it provides support for Moscow and potentially receives help with its submarine program, which would be important in a maritime conflict in the Pacific with the US Navy.

"China has provided 70 percent of the machine tools and 90 percent of the legacy chips that have enabled Russia to rebuild its war machine," the Indo-Pacific commander said. "And then coming back to China is potentially submarine quieting help, as well as other help in some of the areas where Russia is strong."

Neither Beijing nor Moscow's embassies in the US immediately responded to Business Insider's request for comment.

Ukraine imposed sanctions on several Chinese companies on Friday for supporting Russia in the making of Iskander missiles. A day earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy alleged that China was supplying Russia with weapons.

China and Russia have been building a partnership against the West, particularly the US, for years now, strengthening military ties.

North Korea and Russia formalized their emerging partnership last year through a mutual defense pact and Pyongyang's offer to deploy thousands of combat troops to fight alongside Moscow's forces in Kursk. Those soldiers, some of North Korea's better forces, have seen massive losses in combat.

Prior to the deployment, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin met for apparent discussions on an arms deal. Intelligence indicates Russia received thousands of artillery shells and missiles from North Korea.

The arms agreement has caused concern in the US and South Korea. Seoul had been sending Ukraine artillery indirectly through the US, which effectively put both North Korea and South Korea on opposite sides of the war.

• China's air force is capable of denying US superiority in the first island chain, the top US commander in the Pacific said.
• Adm. Samuel Paparo said that China's fighter fleet, bombers, and missiles are enough to cause problems.
• He said that neither side would see air supremacy in a potential war.

China can prevent the US from achieving air superiority within the key first island chain, America's top commander in the Indo-Pacific region said.

Last week, Adm. Samuel Paparo, the head of US Indo-Pacific Command, gave China "high marks" in its ability to prevent the US from achieving air superiority in the first island chain, the strategic archipelagos in East Asia that includes Japan, Taiwan, and the northern Philippines, among other territories.

In a hearing with the US Senate Armed Services Committee, Paparo pointed to China's air force. He said that China now has 2,100 fighters and 200 H-6 bombers and a production rate for fighters that's currently 1.2 to 1 over the US.

China still operates a lot of older airframes, but the number of capable fourth-generation platforms is on the rise, as is its number of fifth-gen fighters. And the country continues to work on new aircraft designs.

"Furthermore," Paparo explained during the hearing, "their advanced long-range air-to-air missiles also present a tremendous threat." China has prioritized building up its missile stockpiles and capabilities in recent years, particularly ones capable of targeting US and allied forces and installations, including insufficiently defended airfields, in the region.

Air superiority, like the US military has enjoyed in conflicts in the Middle East in recent decades, requires securing a substantial degree of control over the skies with little interference from the enemy, meaning aircraft can operate with flexibility and provide support for other forces.

Ceding that air superiority, Paparo said, "is not an option if we intend to maintain capability against our adversaries and the ability to support our allies," especially in the first island chain.

But both the US and Chinese air forces have been rethinking what air superiority would look like in a conflict and questioning whether that is even possible for more than brief windows of time.

With both sides employing advanced sensors and long-range weapons, including formidable air defenses, permanently controlling the skies seems increasingly unlikely.

That said, the admiral explained that he has "some game," too. In a conflict, neither Beijing or Washington's forces would likely achieve air supremacy, or complete control, Paparo said.

"It will be my job to contest air superiority, to protect those forces that are on the first island chain, such as 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force," the commander explained to lawmakers, "and also to provide windows of air superiority in order to achieve our effects."

Officials and experts have often discussed what the future US Air Force strategy against China should look like, the role of unmanned aerial systems in that, and how air power could determine the outcome of a war.

Also important is considering how China's air defense systems would protect important targets, such as critical command and control centers, air bases, and radar sites.

Researchers have said that China could more easily devastate American airpower than the other way around.

Some have pointed to the importance of hardening US airbases and bolstering air defenses in the Indo-Pacific to improve the survivability of American aircraft should China launch a missile strike. Lawmakers in Washington have said the US isn't doing enough in that regard.

• China is building warships much faster than the US, a top US admiral said.
• The head of US Indo-Pacific Command said the rate of Chinese ship production to that of the US is 6 to 1.8.
• China's military buildup and modernization efforts have been a top priority for leader Xi Jinping.

China's military is outbuilding the US on warships, the top American commander in the Indo-Pacific said.

This isn't a new revelation, but the rate at which a top rival is outpacing the US in a critical area is astonishing.

Last week, the head of US Indo-Pacific Command, Adm. Samuel Paparo, testified in front of the US Senate Armed Services Committee on the regional challenges, with China a top talking point.

Asked about China's ability to produce military assets, Paparo said it's building naval combatants at the rate of 6 to 1.8 to the US, roughly three times as many warships.

"And I could go through every force element that we are talking about," he added. He said the rate at which China is building fighter jets compared to the US is 1.2 to 1.

Beijing's military buildup has raised concerns among officials in Washington about what a conflict between the two powers could look like — and whether the US can catch up.

The military buildup, which Paparo suggested had seen staggering growth in recent years, said that "in the last 20 years, they have increased their military 10- to 15-fold."

China is a top priority for the military, especially INDOPACOM. Asked how much time he spends trying to plan for and anticipate potential Chinese actions, Paparo said it "consumes my duties."

In his prepared statement for the committee, Paparo said that China continued "to pursue unprecedented military modernization and increasingly aggressive behavior," citing not only its continually growing military force but also development of cutting-edge technologies, namely artificial intelligence, hypersonic and advanced missiles, and space-based capabilities.

"China is outpacing the US in testing not only these critical technologies," he said, "but also technologies from across their military industrial base."

More combat capability has enabled Chinese assertive and aggressive behavior in the region, the admiral added. That has been especially seen in disputes with the Philippines in the South China Sea, activities around Taiwan, and more.

Paparo specifically cited China's military exercises surrounding Taiwan, which he said have grown in scope, scale, and complexity in recent years and aren't just demonstrations of power but "dress rehearsals for forced unification."

Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping has made military reform, buildup, and modernization his top priorities throughout his time in office. He has set benchmarks for when China should be ready to invade Taiwan, fully modernized, and a world-class military. Some of those deadlines are fast approaching.

The endeavor has faced some hiccups, though, including corruption and graft across the military that has raised questions among top US officials about whether these goals are possible. The US cannot afford to bank on that though.

China's military capabilities have long been a significant concern for the US military.

Across reports on China's military power and US strategic posture in the Indo-Pacific, American defense officials have detailed Beijing's ongoing efforts to bolster its naval fleet, airpower, and missile forces.

Much has been made of China's shipbuilding empire, with its shipyards rapidly producing new and big warships, including surface combatants and aircraft carriers. China has the largest navy in the world and is the top shipbuilder in terms of capacity.

The US shipbuilding industry, in contrast, has atrophied. There are ongoing efforts to revitalize it, but experts and officials say the problems won't be fixed overnight.

Paparo and others have noted that uncrewed systems could be a stopgap answer for what the US lacks in numbers of crewed warships, and the Pentagon is pursuing attritable, affordable drones at scale. But that, too, is a work in progress.