Updated Oct. 20, 2026: Added what came after Day 1, including FASCOM, the drone marketplace, “How the Army Fights,” base-quality announcements and the Hegseth protest.
The Army’s biggest trade show opened Monday in Washington with a new acting secretary at the podium, a lot of drones on the floor and a few announcements that will shape what soldiers drive, shoot and do for a living over the next decade. Here is what stood out from the first day of the Association of the United States Army’s annual meeting.
Telle’s first big speech. Acting Army Secretary Adam Telle, who took over after Dan Driscoll resigned Aug. 31, used his first major address to troops to go after the service’s habits. He opened with Genesis, arguing that “controlling land is fundamental to humanity,” and then turned on Army jargon, saying the service had “drowned ourselves and the public in buzzwords” and that its job was “too fundamental for goofy corporate jargon,” Defense News reported. He never mentioned Driscoll by name but said the Army is holding the course Driscoll set. There is still no nominee for the permanent job, a gap we looked at before the show opened.
“Non-negotiable” open architecture. Telle’s sharpest line was aimed at contractors. “Everything we buy from here on out will have open architecture; it’s non-negotiable,” he said, warning that proprietary data lock-in undermines command and control. He also restated the Army’s right-to-repair push, which limits how much control vendors keep over intellectual property and what they can charge for fixes and spare parts.
An Amazon for small drones. Telle demonstrated an online marketplace where units can shop for small drones and read other soldiers’ reviews of the gear. He also pointed to a test range reservation system launched under Driscoll that officials have compared to Booking.com and say can cut scheduling time from as long as 18 months to 30 days.
A “manufacturing rodeo.” Early next year, the Army plans a competition that pits industrial suppliers against each other to stress the supply chain and, in Telle’s words, “find the weak links,” DefenseScoop reported. He did not say how it would work.
12,000 Infantry Squad Vehicles. GM Defense said Army orders for the lightweight, Chevrolet Colorado-based Infantry Squad Vehicle have grown from an initial 649 to nearly 12,000. A utility variant will go to 39 active-duty and National Guard brigades, and GM said it wants to begin testing an unmanned ground vehicle concept in 2027. Neither side gave a dollar figure for the larger order.
The M777’s replacement has arrived. The Army received the first Mobile Tactical Cannon, a self-propelled 155mm howitzer from Hanwha Defense USA based on South Korea’s K9, officials said. The four-year prototyping contract is worth up to nearly $263 million for as many as 18 systems. The towed M777, in service since 2005, reaches less than 24 kilometers with standard rounds; the K9 can fire beyond 60. Stryker brigades get it first. “We’re excited to have that and get ready to test it,” said Brig. Gen. Robert Mikesh, who runs the Army’s offensive fires portfolio, according to Defense News.
A new job for drone builders. Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Christopher LaNeve said the Army is “scaling this across the Army” as it stands up 390A robotics technician, a warrant officer specialty for soldiers who build, program and repair drones and robots. The first 10 were inducted at Fort Bragg this month. We break down what the job involves and how to apply.
An interceptor built to turn harder. Lockheed Martin brought the PAC-3 Edge, the Patriot interceptor it unveiled days earlier, and pitched its agility against hypersonic threats. It arrives as the Pentagon tries to rebuild stocks drained in the war with Iran, which we explained here.
And back to the jungle. Away from the show floor, Army Times published a look inside the Army’s jungle school and its notorious “Green Mile” of mangroves and mud, alongside a report on Panamanians showing U.S. soldiers the way through the jungle. It is a reminder that for all the talk of drones and software, the Army still trains people to walk.
What came after Day 1
A new command for robots. The Army plans to create a U.S. Army Futures and Autonomous Systems Command, or FASCOM, under an Oct. 1 memo from acting Army Secretary Adam Telle, Defense News reported. The memo also creates a portfolio acquisition executive for autonomy and sets fielding goals by fiscal 2028. “The Army is rapidly advancing to maintain our lethal edge,” Telle said.
The drone marketplace goes global. The Army’s online drone marketplace has expanded to 33 countries and handled $800 million in transactions, Defense News reported. Telle said it is “connecting soldiers directly with builders and removing the bureaucratic middlemen.”
A new war-fighting guide. The Army’s 46-page “How the Army Fights,” released Oct. 7, is built on four pillars: convergence, strike, close battle and endurance, Defense News reported. “Only ground maneuver can seize what the enemy holds and secure it against the enemy’s will,” it says.
Barracks and chow halls. Sergeant Major of the Army Michael Weimer told a family forum that “our traditional dining facility ecosystems have been failing for years.” Telle said fixing heating and air conditioning would solve much of the barracks problem: “If you can tackle HVAC, you can solve more than 50% of the mass of the problems of barracks.” The Army is putting $121 million toward barracks HVAC upgrades, according to the Army.
Hegseth heckled. On Oct. 14, six protesters interrupted a panel with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Project Agincourt, a Pentagon effort to speed up buying autonomous systems, one shouting “You’re not a warrior, you’re a coward,” Military Times reported. A handful of spectators responded with chants of “USA.” Hegseth also said the Pentagon wants about $50 billion in one-time reconciliation funding to speed production of autonomous and robotic systems. “I want you to tell me which rules can be signed away,” he told industry, Defense News reported.
Defense News’ full recap of the conference is here.
Sources
- Defense News: ‘We’ve drowned ourselves in buzzwords’: Acting US Army secretary gives sermon-like first speech
- DefenseScoop: Telle says Army will ‘find the weak links’ through ‘manufacturing rodeo’
- Defense News: US Army, GM Defense agree to add 12,000 Infantry Squad Vehicles to fleet
- Defense News: US Army gets first mobile cannon to replace M777 howitzer
- Defense News: US Army creates robotics technician job to focus on drone warfare
- Army Times via Defense News: Inside the Army jungle school’s notorious ‘Green Mile’
Featured image: Capt. Thomas McCarty / U.S. Army via Wikimedia Commons, public domain (cropped)
