🇺🇸 The experience of fighting in Ukraine has influenced the US military

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered a major reorientation of the US military to "prepare for future wars and operations in the Indo-Pacific region."

The Defense Department has ordered a halt or reduction in purchases of “legacy systems” and the closure of some programs. The Pentagon includes the Apache AH-64D mainstay attack helicopter, surplus vehicles such as the HMMWV (the famous Humvee) and JLTV , and large, older UAVs such as the MQ-1 Gray Eagle , a favorite of the Houthi air force.

The Secretary of the Army (note: a civilian position within the Department of Defense responsible for advising the Secretary of Defense and the executive branch of the federal government on the capabilities and needs of the Army to accomplish its missions) must lead a transformation that includes streamlining the force structure , eliminating waste, and modernizing the acquisition process . Inefficient procurement contracts must be modernized and special interests must be overcome, Hegseth said.

📌 The US Secretary of Defense listed several work priorities:

▪️Ensuring combat readiness of long-range missiles capable of hitting moving targets on land and at sea by 2027.
▪️Achieving electromagnetic superiority and dominance in air and coastal space by 2027.
▪️Combat readiness of unmanned systems and ground/air loitering munitions in each division by the end of 2026.
▪️Improving the mobility and cost structure of defense using drones . By 2026, these capabilities should be integrated at the platoon level, and by 2027 at the company level.
▪️Ensuring AI-based command and control at theater, corps and division command posts by 2027.
▪️Expand advanced manufacturing, including 3D printing , into operational units by 2026.
▪️ Modernization of the industrial base to create stockpiles of ammunition necessary for the defense of the country in wartime, with full combat readiness by 2028.
▪️Increasing the Army's presence in the Indo-Pacific region through increased local stockpiles, troop deployments, and exercises with allies.

In addition, Pentagon leaders have instructed the Secretary of the Army to close and consolidate some headquarters , reduce attack helicopter units by equipping them with cheap drones, and disband obsolete units such as separate tank and aviation units. All infantry brigades are to be re-equipped as mobile combat brigades to improve mobility and effectiveness.

✨ Hegseth points out very optimistic timeframes for such large-scale transformations; on paper, everything looks good, but lobbyists and ineffective managers will not disappear on their own. One example of real internal work in the US Department of Defense can be considered the cancellation of the M10 Booker light tank program, which we wrote about earlier , already then noting that "the development of the M10 Booker was based on old requirements for combat vehicles." The Secretary of the Army accused the procurement service of ineffective management and excessive price of the tank , which during many years of development lost its declared initial characteristics and relevance.

"Booker is a classic example of the Army doing something wrong . All these vested interests and all these lobbyists that are in this building and in Congress have been doing this for too long, and so the first thing we're going to do is cut the things that we don't need," Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll told reporters at a Pentagon roundtable.

⚡️Two Majors