WASHINGTON — The Association of the United States Army rolled out its annual conference from Oct. 13-15 in Washington, beckoning defense industry officials, lawmakers and military personnel from around the globe to assess the future force and the threats personnel may soon encounter.

Anchoring this year’s themes were efforts geared toward modernizing the force through next-gen weaponry and vehicles, personnel training, long-range artillery, unmanned systems, defense capabilities, network domains and much more.

Such efforts, meanwhile, continue to be influenced by conflicts abroad that demand battlefield tech evolution at breakneck speed.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is dragging toward another brutal winter as manned and unmanned innovations continue to reshape modern warfare. Arsenal developments throughout the increasingly contentious Indo-Pacific persist in response to territorial assertions by Beijing. And tensions endure in the Middle East, where regional attacks by Iranian proxies, Syrian upheaval and Israel’s war in Gaza are under the microscope of the international community.

Army officials attending the conference emphasized the service’s need for transformation as the technologies, policies and spending at the core of these conflicts intersect with the Army’s global mission.

Defense News and Army Times covered these discussions — and much more — from the show. Catch up on all of our top stories from this year’s AUSA conference and be sure to read more of our latest coverage at defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/ausa.

Modernization

A soldier moves a 155mm round to load a M777 Howitzer during a live fire exercise at the Grafenwoehr Training Area, Germany. (Kevin Sterling Payne/Army)

Early drops of new Army command software delight artillerists in drill

Never mind the mere beta status of the Army’s new app for operating howitzers, soldiers of the 4th Infantry Division at Fort Carson, Colorado, were itching to find out whether four decades of the existing, error-prone system were finally coming to an end.

So they hooked up their M777 to the novel Artillery Execution Suite during an exercise last month and pulled the lanyard.

The new software, AXS, is a module of the overarching Next-Generation Command-and-Control, or NGC2, envisioned to power all Army battlefield operations. The tests showed that AXS can drastically shorten what artillerists call the “kill chain.” Read more here.

Driscoll goes scorched earth on Army buying inertia

In what may be a first for the staid Association of the U.S Army’s annual meeting in Washington, the Army secretary kicked off the conference with an F-bomb.

Dan Driscoll, who has served as the Army’s civilian leader since February, announced major coming changes to Army purchasing, parts repairs and technological adoption in a heated address that accused construction contractors of corruption and stressed that the lives of soldiers were on the line. Read more here.

Inside the US Army’s new modernization mega-command

The Army created a new four-star outfit – Futures Command – in the late summer of 2018, right in Austin’s city center, empowered with a mandate to quickly develop new requirements for modern capabilities.

As Austin’s high-tech evolution continues, so does the Army’s. The service announced earlier this year that it would combine the new Army Futures Command with the 52-year-old Training and Doctrine Command, effectively doing away with two four-star-led organizations to create a brand new one. Read more here.

Next-gen tank to reach soldiers for testing by end of 2026

The Army’s already-accelerated plan to field its next-generation M1E3 Abrams tank will hit a major milestone before the end of next year with its first soldier touchpoint, a General Dynamics executive revealed Wednesday.

Speaking at a panel alongside Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. Randy George, Danny Deep, executive vice president for Global Operations at GD, said a “pre-prototype” of the M1E3 would be sent to the fighting forces so they could kick the tires. Read more here.

First shots in future fights will be fired in cyberspace, leaders warn

The next conflict likely won’t start with bullets or missiles at a distant overseas location, but instead could be a cyber strike on the homeland.

“The first shots will be fired in the cyber domain,” said Maj. Gen. Jake Kwon, director of strategic operations for the Army’s Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff. “The Army has to think differently, and we have to fight faster.”

To move faster on cyber, Kwon said several initiatives must be met. First on the list is artificial intelligence-driven mission command, with the top goal to achieve decision dominance. Read more here.

General Atomics successfully tests next-gen artillery round

A controlled artillery round that can hit targets from 120 kilometers away in GPS-denied environments was successfully tested at U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona.

General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems’ Long Range Maneuvering Projectile, or LRMP, was fired from an M777 howitzer platform using M231 powder charges during an August test, the company announced. Read more here.

Training

A U.S. Army UH-60 Black Hawk Helicopter prepares to take off in Banyuwangi, Indonesia. (Sgt. 1st Class Austin Berner/Army)

Boeing and Leonardo join forces to modernize Army aviator training

U.S. aerospace giant Boeing and Italian firm Leonardo are uniting to offer a contractor-owned, contractor-operated solution for the U.S. Army as the service embarks on an effort to revamp its flight school, the companies announced Monday at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual conference in Washington.

The two aerospace leaders are going to submit an offering to the Army’s Flight School Next program aimed at creating a more flexible and scalable approach to rotary-wing training focused on going back to the basics — particularly using a single-engine helicopter. Read more here.

Here’s what’s new in soldier gear in 2025 and beyond

From cold weather gear to loitering munitions, Program Executive Office-Soldier, the center for all things soldier gear, has been upgrading and fielding new equipment to troops, with more in store in the coming year.

This past year, the office has lightened body armor, added blood coolers for lifesaving measures and put together new cold weather gear for soldier testing, among other equipment. Program officers met with Army Times before the Association of the U.S. Army Annual Meeting & Exposition to showcase some of its equipment. Read more here.

Next Generation Squad Weapon continues fielding, seeing upgrades

The Army’s Next Generation Squad Weapon continues to field to units and see upgrades, including a carbine version that’s currently under development.

The M7 and M250, both of which fire a new 6.8mm-caliber round, are the Army’s replacements for the M4 and M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, respectively, among the close combat force.

Col. Jason Bohannon, program manager for soldier lethality at Program Executive Office Soldier, told Army Times in a recent interview that in addition to ongoing fielding of the weapons systems, some are already having upgrades applied. Read more here.

Soldiers need better way to evacuate casualties, enlisted leaders say

Top enlisted leaders who work on U.S. Army medical and operational needs are being increasingly vocal about modernization necessities when it comes medical evacuation and its associated tasks in a future large-scale combat with a near-peer enemy.

Casualty numbers in the Russia-Ukraine war point to what would likely be large-scale casualty events in future conflicts that will far eclipse the numbers seen by U.S. troops in recent campaigns like those in the Global War on Terror, a panel of command sergeants major said this week. Read more here.

These soldiers are finding ways to see enemy drones before they strike

Soldiers with the 1st Cavalry Division have found ways to help armored vehicles pair sensors with drones to spot enemy drones before they strike.

Col. Nicholas Dvonch, division artillery commander, and Chief Warrant Officer 2 Trenton Huntsinger spoke with Army Times recently about the progress of the division’s experiment.

The soldiers have taken passive sensors — the size of a baseball home plate — and mounted them on armored vehicles to detect enemy drones and pass that information back to their air defense element. Read more here.

Armored soldiers get first live-fire work on Switchblade 600

Soldiers with the Army’s 1st Cavalry Division recently tested the Switchblade 600 Loitering Munition System during an exercise at Fort Hood’s eastern training area, marking the first time the system has been live-fired on the Texas installation.

Personnel from 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team in September conducted the trial in support of the Army’s Transformation in Contact initiative aimed at modernizing armored formations for future conflicts. Read more here.

Personnel

Soldiers conduct an artillery live-fire operation in Oksbol, Denmark. (Staff Sgt. Agustín Montañez/Army)

A new barracks task force aims to improve military living conditions

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has formed a new “barracks task force” to improve living conditions for U.S. service members in barracks across the globe.

“For too long this Department has neglected its responsibilities to set and maintain the appropriate standards for barracks, and that ends now,” he said in a memo.

The Barracks Task Force will be led by the Assistant Secretary of War for Energy, Installations and Environment. The team must develop an initial barracks plan that will identify investment opportunities and create department-wide policies for barracks standards that will prioritize air and water quality for troops. Read more here.

Army expands MOS program that allows soldiers to skip certain training

The Army recently announced a slew of military occupational specialties, or MOSs, that are being added as eligible jobs within the service’s Civilian Acquired Skills Program, or ACASP, an initiative that allows soldiers with particular sets of skills to skip certain portions of training early in their Army careers.

With the latest addition of 17 job specialties, which officially were added on Oct. 1, the number of jobs that qualify for the ACASP has climbed to 60.

Under the program’s guidelines, qualified recruits, meaning those who acquired job-specific certifications or training as civilians, are eligible to go into the service with modified training and at a higher rank than their peers. Read more here.

Infantry brigades shift to mobile brigades in Army transformation

Over the next two years, the U.S. Army will convert 25 Infantry Brigade Combat Teams into new formations known as Mobile Brigade Combat Teams as part of the service’s “Transforming in Contact” initiative, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George said at a media roundtable in September.

As part of the service’s initiative to rapidly deliver new capabilities to operational units, three brigades are already undergoing the MBCT transition. Their leaders recently discussed some of the changes. Read more here.

Army secretary to soldiers: help get ‘human stupidity’ out of the way

U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll encouraged soldiers and families to help the Army get “human stupidity” out of the way to improve life on installations.

In a session that lasted over an hour, Driscoll, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George and Sergeant Major of the Army Michael Weimer said they were working to improve quality-of-life measures for soldiers and their families. Read more here.

College-style dining facilities coming to Army bases

The U.S. Army has signed a contract to create dining venues at several installations aimed at revamping soldiers’ culinary experience, the service announced Sept. 30.

The Army Nonappropriated Fund Contracting Office at Installation Management Command, G9, awarded Compass Group USA a concession contract Aug. 28 to create college campus-style facilities at Fort Bragg, North Carolina; Fort Stewart, Georgia; Fort Carson, Colorado; Fort Hood, Texas; and Fort Drum, New York. Read more here.

Army begins ‘talent panels’ to cut 6,500 manned aviation jobs

The Army has officially embarked on its effort to relocate some 6,500 junior officers and warrant officers who it says are no longer needed in the aviation field.

Aviation officials say, however, that they hope to reach that target without forcing many troops out of the service.

Maj. Gen. Clair Gill, commander of the Army Aviation Center of Excellence and Fort Rucker, Alabama, told reporters at the Association of the United States Army’s annual meeting on Wednesday that talent panels launched this month are intended to keep decision-making power with the soldiers and would not immediately lead to involuntary transfers or reductions. Read more here.

Industry

A Rock Island Arsenal worker transports 3,000-degree molten steel from the furnace to casting molds. (Photo courtesy of RIA-JTMC)

Printing with sand: How Rock Island Arsenal keeps Army gear humming

In the forge at Rock Island Arsenal, workers in silver heat suits and darkened face shields shovel fire unfazed as flames lick their feet and legs. Their work is older than the nation’s railroads.

A short drive down the road is Rock Island’s advanced manufacturing center built during World War II. The interior is brightly lit, clean and the only sound is the low hum of 3D printers at work. Despite the differences, both facilities serve the same mission: to keep the Army supplied and ready now and in the future. Read more here.

US Army’s first hypersonic battery to be fully equipped by December

The U.S. Army’s first unit to receive hypersonic weapons will get a battery’s worth of rounds by the end of the year, Maj. Gen. Frank Lozano, the service’s program executive officer for missiles and space, told Defense News in a recent interview.

In 2021 the 1st Multidomain Task Force, 5th Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment, 17th Field Artillery Brigade at Joint Base Lewis-McChord received all equipment — except for the actual live rounds — for the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon capability it calls Dark Eagle. Read more here.

Army scrutinizes supply chain risks to deliver MV-75 aircraft by 2027

The U.S. Army has conducted a thorough assessment of supply chain risks to build the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft, the MV-75, and is aiming to deliver the prototype aircraft in fiscal 2027, the program executive officer for Army aviation, Brig. Gen. David Phillips, told Defense News in a recent interview.

Following calls from Army senior leaders to dramatically accelerate the MV-75’s fielding, plans conveyed earlier this year to hit production of the advanced tiltrotor by FY28 still stand. Read more here.

New Army helo engine still powering on despite uncertain future

The U.S. Army has not yet terminated the Improved Turbine Engine Program despite the service proposing to end the program as part of its major transformation initiative laid out in May.

While the service continues to look at different courses of action with the program, it has continued its testing program. The Army had already installed the General Electric-designed engine, designed to replace all the engines in both UH-60 Black Hawk and AH-64 Apache helicopters, into a Black Hawk at Sikorsky’s facility in West Palm Beach, Florida.

The aircraft first flew in May with the new engine and has since been tested in forward flight at up to 4,000 feet. Read more here.

Anduril, GDLS team up on smarter battlefield radar

Anduril Industries is partnering with General Dynamics Land Systems to integrate its Spark Radar onto armored vehicles and other ground platforms, aiming to strengthen maneuver force protection against emerging threats such as drones and precision munitions.

The collaboration brings Anduril’s radar and battle management technologies into GDLS’ vehicle designs from the start, rather than adding them after production. The companies said the integration is a step toward coordinated, multi-vehicle defense systems that connect sensors, radars and command nodes across formations. Read more here.

Army accelerates PrSM output as ATACMS nears sunset

The Army is finding ways to accelerate its new Precision Strike Missile, or PrSM, as it begins to field it more widely to the force while sunsetting its 40-year-old tactical missile system, Maj. Gen. Frank Lozano, program executive officer for missiles and space, told Defense News.

The service is expecting a production contract for the first increment of PrSM by the end of the month, with Lozano noting, “We will put Lockheed Martin under contract for 400 missiles.” Read more here.

International

A group of howitzers and Bradley fighting vehicles are lined up for transportation to a training area at Camp Carroll, South Korea. (Sgt. Eric Kestner/US Army)

Where to stash combat gear in the Indo-Pacific? The Army wants to know

The U.S. Army is revising the worldwide distribution of forward-deployed equipment, dubbed preposition stock, as officials weigh its utility and cost, Lt. Gen. Chris Mohan, the acting Army Materiel Command commander, told Defense News.

The effort was designed to stage weapons, vehicles, equipment and supplies at key global locations so forces can rapidly respond to crises. In recent years, the Army has moved from viewing the use of Army Prepositioned Stock kit as a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency situation to regularly dipping into the stocks for major training exercises.

While APS has long been a cornerstone of U.S. power projection, Mohan acknowledged the system must adapt to new strategic realities, particularly as the Pentagon shifts greater focus to the Indo-Pacific theater. Read more here.

Army Korea’s move to longer duty tours to come in stages, general says

The Eighth Army in Korea is already accepting soldier transfers under a new “tour normalization” system that began Oct. 1. But not every installation in the country is ready yet to accept soldiers and their families for longer tours.

Speaking to reporters at the Association of the United States Army’s annual meeting on Monday, Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor, Eighth Army commander, said the unit had embarked on a phased implementation model, with the southern installations, including Camp Humphreys, adopting tour normalization before the northern ones. Read more here.

I Corps adapts to meet modern challenges in the Indo-Pacific

The U.S. Army’s I Corps is at a moment of strategic transition, shouldering the responsibility of shaping the service’s readiness across the vast, complex Indo-Pacific theater.

Overseeing that effort is Lt. Gen. Matthew McFarlane, under whose command the Corps, through continuous exercise and training, is rethinking itself as both a forward campaign-capable headquarters and a practical force provider for homeland defense.

Defense News sat down with McFarlane in a recent interview to discuss how the Corps is preparing for various phases of conflict and recap lessons from its expansive training campaign. Read more here.

How the US Army, NATO are creating a new Eastern Flank Deterrence Line

The U.S. Army and its NATO allies are rapidly aligning resources to develop a new “Eastern Flank Deterrence Line” aimed at developing combat capabilities that can measure up to possible Russian attacks, according to service commanders in Europe.

U.S. Army Europe and Africa commander Gen. Christopher Donahue “wants to go fast on this,” Lt. Gen. Charles Costanza, the Army’s V Corps commander, told Defense News in a recent interview. Read more here.

New program aims to put nuclear generators on Army bases around the world

U.S. officials on Tuesday announced a program to locate small nuclear power generation reactors on U.S. Army bases around the world.

Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and Energy Secretary Chris Wright announced the Janus Program, aimed at developing microreactors to generate power without relying on diesel fuel, at the Association of the U.S. Army conference in Washington. Read more here.

Unmanned

A Black Hawk helicopter flies entirely unmanned. (Courtesy of Lockheed Martin)

Sikorsky turns the venerable Black Hawk into a true unmanned aircraft

The UH-60 Black Hawk has previously flown without a human pilot, but now it’s fully reconfigured to be an unmanned aircraft capable of flying a variety of missions, according to Lockheed Martin’s Sikorsky.

The company is unveiling the unmanned aircraft system version of the Black Hawk at the Association of the U.S. Army’s conference, marking Sikorsky’s latest leap in autonomous helicopter development. Read more here.

Army’s big drone ambition runs into the hard part: scaling up

The U.S. Army is racing to turn its aging organic industrial base into a modern drone factory network — and learning just how hard it is to move from prototypes to mass production.

The Army’s push comes amid lessons from the war in Ukraine, where inexpensive drones and loitering munitions have reshaped the battlefield and overwhelmed conventional forces. Read more here.

No drones for Army squads, teams, 25th Infantry Division leader says

Amid a push to put more small drones in the hands of soldiers across the force, the U.S. Army is learning that there’s a ceiling to the number of unmanned systems that units can handle.

Col. Dave Lamborn, commander of 2nd Mobile Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, out of Hawaii, told a panel during the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual meeting in Washington that in division testing, the Army’s smallest units could be overtasked by the challenge of operating drones on top of all their conventional duties. Read more here.

General Atomics, Hanwha to work on short takeoff version of Gray Eagle

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems announced Tuesday it is teaming up with South Korean firm Hanwha Aerospace to develop and produce a short-takeoff-and-landing version of the Gray Eagle drone.

The two firms signed the partnership agreement Tuesday, General Atomics said, and will work together to design and build a production-representative version of the drone. General Atomics said it has already flown a self-funded prototype, which the company said shows it can quickly move from development to delivery. Read more here.

The Army’s new watercraft plan banks on autonomy, commercial ships

The Army’s long-awaited watercraft strategy charts a course that prioritizes sustaining an aging fleet, leveraging commercial solutions and accelerating experimentation with autonomous vessels, according to senior service leaders who helped craft it.

The new strategy, which has yet to be published publicly, takes “a much more holistic or comprehensive approach to Army watercraft,” Lt. Gen. Karl Gingrich, the Army deputy chief of staff G-8 chief, told Defense News in a recent interview. Read more here.

AeroVironment eyes new factory, drone launches for Switchblade

In recent years, AeroVironment’s Switchblade loitering munition has become a critical weapon in Ukraine and played a growing role in multiple nations’ arsenals.

Now, AeroVironment is preparing to expand its ability to produce the Switchblade and is working on new ways to launch and control it — including from an MQ-9 Reaper drone. Read more here.