During Thursday’s Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) questioned the Army Secretary, Daniel Driscoll, and Chief of Staff General Randy A. George about UAS capability developments.
00:00And I actually share Senator Blumenthal's, I think that'd be a good thing to do.
00:05And it seems to be the topic du jour, which is UAS and counter-UAS, and probably for good reason,
00:12although, you know, we've been briefed on these topics before,
00:15of seeing what everybody saw with, you know, with Ukraine and with Russia, I think,
00:23sort of highlights the need for us to be speedy with this.
00:35It's, we can talk more about it in a classified setting, but certainly it's been something that is on the radar.
00:42I want to commend the Army for, I think, being ahead of this, and quite frankly, versus the Air Force.
00:50I think the Air Force is, from everything I've gathered, is really clumsy about how they're protecting our assets with counter-UAS.
01:00And it's just too, it's an unwillingness to adopt technologies that already exist in the private sector.
01:11And I don't really understand why, and it's not really, that's not really your, the question for you guys today.
01:16But I know that you guys are sort of leading the joint effort, right?
01:22The joint, can you talk me through what, what might be done then?
01:27Let's just say, of all the branches, you guys are number one in this, and noting and granting that there's work to do.
01:34How can you help influence what, like, just say, the Air Force is doing?
01:39I mean, this is a big concern, obviously, Whiteman Air Force Base is in Missouri.
01:43Fort Leonard Wood's also in Missouri.
01:44But could you just walk me through that, what that, leading that effort means,
01:48and how we can lead to be more nimble as it relates to counter-UAS?
01:53I think, Senator, this is a joint problem.
01:56Everybody's going to have to understand how to not only employ drones, but protect yourself from drones and autonomous systems.
02:03So, you know, I will again point out that I think we need to be more agile in our funding and by capabilities.
02:09You kind of referred to that, that we don't get locked into some program, because things are moving very rapidly.
02:15The discussion we had yesterday with somebody who was supporting Ukraine, I mean, was an update, and it's going to continue to happen.
02:22And I think stateside, we have submitted, I think we're going to have to make some changes.
02:27One, we're going to have to work locally with the FAA and FCCs locally.
02:32But some of this gets to the 130I, you know, and I think that that's legislated as far as what it is, how we can share information on drones.
02:41I think that legislation is about nine or ten years old, and I think that that needs to get updated.
02:47And then the big thing that we're looking at is on every system we've mentioned, I think we should be, one, really focused on cost curve.
02:55How do we do this in a way that, you know, you're not sending million-dollar missiles or using big, expensive equipment against things that are, you know, relatively cheap?
03:05And that's what we're looking at.
03:06And we have, we are running a very large exercise this month and next, you know, right now we're doing this overseas and going through all of that.
03:18And I would love to come and brief you on off that, because there's several different systems, both kinetic and non-kinetic, that we're employing, you know, really around the world.
03:27Because they work different in different environments, and we're doing the same thing stateside.
03:32We've done stuff where we've sent things, for example, down to the border to make sure that we're testing it in every environment.
03:39And it's having a great impact, I think, on what's happening at the border now.
03:44In many ways, the autonomous efforts are, not only are they gathering important intelligence and directing critical resources to apprehend people trying to come here illegally, there's sort of a scarecrow effect, too.
03:58Like, it's there.
03:59People know it's there.
04:00The cartels are sophisticated in the places that they want to go.
04:05So, I mean, I think at the border this is actually very important.
04:07But I want to drill down just a little bit with the time that I have, and this is going to be a much longer discussion.
04:11But as it relates to, you know, there's a big focus on the actual drone and what the drone does.
04:18But there's a lot of things that happen before a drone were to be intercepted or shot down.
04:23There's detection, right?
04:25There's being able, there's sort of awareness with sensors.
04:28And how is the Army getting, what steps are being taken right now to make us more nimble to acquire these sorts of systems?
04:38Because I do have great concern that the efforts that are being made, we've got a long way to go.
04:45So what is happening right now?
04:46And maybe that's for you, Mr. Secretary or General.
04:49Senator, what we are trying to do is, and we can talk about this more in the classified setting,
04:54but talk specifically to the companies and the tool makers that are being used in war right now
05:01and figure out how do we get, what they used on Sunday was a pretty ingenious way to get it in in some ways.
05:08And I think we would not have been ready for that, and we are not ready for it.
05:14But we know what they did.
05:15We are going to get in the hands of soldiers in the coming weeks, and we will be after that.
05:19And I appreciate that, Candor, and just make the one final point.
05:22I think that, and this is, the Air Force in particular, I'm sorry that I'm picking on the Air Force today,
05:27but the truth is they've asked private companies to come in and do an assessment,
05:31and they have a good way to do it, and they say, oh, thank you for your input.
05:34We're going to keep doing it the way we're doing it.
05:36That's my concern.
05:37So thank you, Mr. Chairman, for your grace for my extra 40 seconds.
05:41And thank you, and that's our responsibility to change that, Senator.
05:45Let me just say this with regard to drones, because this can be said in an open session,
05:55and we'll have a closed session.
05:58The public will not know it.
05:59But our reconciliation bill contains $1 billion of funding for small drones
06:06and another billion dollars for one-way attack drones.
06:10Some of that will not go to the Army, but much of it will,
06:16and I wanted the public and members who will not attend the closed session to know that.
