From drone red tape to an aviation shake up: 5 Army stories from 2024
In 2024, the US Army moved out on plans to better team up soldiers and machines on the battlefield, while facing some policy and technology challenges.
In 2024, the US Army moved out on plans to better team up soldiers and machines on the battlefield, while facing some policy and technology challenges.
Romania becomes the second country to receive money under a new authority granted to the State Department.
“We had battalions and squads with UAS that had not had them in that volume or at those echelons before. We endeavored to make contact with unmanned systems first,” said Col. Jim Armstrong, the commander of 1st ABCT, 3rd ID.
The service wants to begin a new Multi-Domain Artillery Cannon System prototyping initiative, to slow down PrSM Inc 2 production and to launch IVAS Next.
The service has sent hundreds of ground combat vehicles to Ukraine since February 2022, and Maj. Gen. Glenn Dean warned that “sustainment challenges” abound without additional dollars.
Ukraine has said it will use the US-made tanks sparingly, and analysts told Breaking Defense they're unlikely to make an immediate strategic impact — unless there's a breakthrough.
“We have concluded that we're not able to change the production priorities [for Taiwan]. That would be an easy answer but unfortunately there are no easy answers,” senior State Department official Mira Resnick told Breaking Defense.
The Army plans to "to design a more survivable, lighter tank that will be more effective on the battlefield at initial fielding, and more easy to upgrade in the future," the service announced tonight.
“If it requires contractors or back support in person, even if it's government, that's less desirable because you have their lives to worry about,” said Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Bill LaPlante.
After the exercise, the Army plans to leave logistic support equipment, like tanker trucks, inside Australia instead of loading it back onto the Army Prepositioned Stock 3 ships.
The Biden administration may change course and use presidential drawdown authority to provide tanks to Ukraine, suggested Stanley Brown, the principal deputy assistant secretary for the bureau of political-military affairs.
The announcement comes amid reports that the US is close to saying Abrams are Kyiv-bound as well.
“We're going to keep all options on the table,” Pentagon press secretary said when asked if M1 Abrams tanks could also be bound for Kyiv in the near future.
“[We’re] trying to to mirror what it would be like to deploy into an austere environment, from fort-to-port, and then generate combat power on a foreign soil.”