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Army secretary reveals how Rangers bypass Pentagon red tape to counter exploding drone threat

Army secretary reveals how Rangers bypass Pentagon red tape to counter exploding drone threat

EXCLUSIVE: Army Secretary Dan Driscoll said U.S. soldiers are improvising with government credit cards to buy and test battlefield gear as they adapt to the exploding drone threat — as the Army shifts its long-term posture toward countering China in the Indo-Pacific. In an interview with Fox News Digital, Driscoll described how elite units like the 75th Ranger Regiment are bypassing the Pentagon’s cumbersome procurement system to test new drones, sensors and weapons in real time. At the same time, he said the Army is aligning with the Pentagon’s assessment of China as the nation’s “pacing threat,” building a force optimized for the Indo-Pacific but still capable of deploying worldwide at a moment’s notice. After a visit with the regiment at Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, Georgia, on Tuesday, Driscoll said Rangers “basically just use their corporate credit card to go online and purchase things to test, and they will find what works.”  “They’ll do a lot of that outside the traditional procurement process. That flexibility lets them innovate and test at a speed that’s just really hard to do in the conventional force,” he added.  ‘THRILLED TO BE HERE’: ARMY SECRETARY SAYS GUARD TROOPS EAGER FOR DC CRIME FIGHT Driscoll described the 75th Ranger Regiment as “live G.I. Joe dolls.” Watching them train in close-quarters battle, he said, you can’t help but notice their sheer size and physicality as they wedge themselves through doorways during room-clearing drills. That raw power, he added, is a reminder of why the U.S. invests so heavily in maintaining elite infantry forces. But even America’s premier ground fighters are being forced to rethink how they operate. Driscoll said the age of slipping silently onto an objective under cover of night — fast-roping from a Black Hawk, breaching doors, and overwhelming defenders — is vanishing.  The spread of cheap battlefield technology, from drones to acoustic sensors to loitering munitions, has made stealth insertions far more difficult. “We don’t really own the night like we used to,” he said, noting that night-vision gear and detection tools that were once expensive and rare are now accessible to adversaries at scale. That shift, he argued, has turned special operators into improvisers. Rangers and other elite units are now experimenting with disposable drones, commercial quadcopters and custom-built weapons to stay ahead.  Unlike conventional forces bound by long acquisition cycles, these units have the flexibility to innovate quickly.  The idea is for Rangers to test rapidly, see what works, and then pass those lessons along to the rest of the Army. The problem, he acknowledged, is what comes next. While small-unit experimentation is thriving, scaling those solutions across the broader force runs headlong into bureaucratic red tape.  HEGSETH TEARS UP RED TAPE, ORDERS PENTAGON TO BEGIN DRONE SURGE AT TRUMP’S COMMAND Driscoll pointed out that Congress once gave the Army a dozen broad funding categories it could move money between — say, vehicles in one bucket, drones in another. Today, he said, there are more than 1,400 narrowly drawn “buckets,” some tied to specific makes and models, making it nearly impossible to pivot quickly. That rigidity might not matter for tanks or trucks, but with drone technology evolving every few weeks in Ukraine, he said, the Army risks falling behind. Driscoll visited the airfield just weeks after a shooting on base at Fort Stewart, where Hunter is located. He met with students of the criminal investigation division (CID), which is currently leading the probe into the shooting. Five soldiers were injured after a sergeant allegedly opened fire with a personal handgun he brought on base.  While he praised the CID’s “speed and professionalism” with the investigation, Driscoll added, “The Army wants zero of these incidents, and so we are looking at everything we can to try to ensure it never happens again.” Driscoll spoke with Fox News Digital ahead of an expected global force posture review set for late summer or early fall. That review may lead to sizable shifts in the number of troops deployed at bases throughout Europe, the Middle East or the Indo-Pacific.  Driscoll said the Army is aligning itself with the Pentagon’s assessment of China as the nation’s “pacing threat.” He emphasized that the service is designing its force to be effective in the Indo-Pacific — particularly in providing the logistics, sustainment and long-term presence needed to deter or fight a peer competitor. At the same time, Driscoll cautioned against focusing too narrowly on one theater. “Human history has been pretty difficult to predict where the next conflict may unfold,” he said, stressing that the Army must remain capable of deploying anywhere the president and defense secretary direct. That flexibility, he argued, is a defining feature of land power. Driscoll declined to outline his full recommendations for the upcoming review but made clear one priority: counter-drone measures. “With the Secretary of Defense’s support, we are putting together plans to make a pretty aggressive investment in how to counter the threat from drones across the world and here at home,” he told Fox News Digital. In his tenure, Driscoll has kicked off the Army Transformation Initiative, a top-to-bottom modernization drive he says is essential for the Army to remain decisive against peer adversaries like China. “If you look at what the Army was like in the late 1990s as it went into the counterinsurgency operations of the early 2000s, we really haven’t changed all that much,” he said.  Now, “the Army is running as fast as it possibly can to try to reinvent itself, to be ready for modern warfare.”

Trump not on ballot, but president front and center in 2025 elections

Trump not on ballot, but president front and center in 2025 elections

His name isn’t on the ballot, but President Donald Trump is topic number one on the campaign trail this summer in the top 2025 election battles. Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill, the party’s gubernatorial nominee in New Jersey, is repeatedly tying her Republican rival to Trump and the president’s sweeping and controversial moves during his nearly eight months back in the White House. “As Trump has inflicted all this damage on our country, Republican politicians like Jack Ciattarelli have cheered him on every step of the way,” Sherrill emphasized in a fundraising email to supporters. Meanwhile, Ciattarelli, a former state lawmaker who came close to defeating Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy four years ago, is showcasing the president’s support. DEMOCRATS SHOWCASE UNITY, BUT CRACKS APPEAR, AS PARTY AIMS TO REBOUND AT BALLOT BOX “We’re going to look to deploy the president, the White House, in every way that we can, Ciattarelli said last week at an event at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey. It’s not just New Jersey. Statewide and top municipal contests from coast to coast this year are being partially framed as referendums on Trump and his agenda. And Democrats and Republicans see the showdown in New Jersey, as well as in Virginia, the only other state that holds gubernatorial and legislative elections the year after a presidential contest, as key barometers ahead of next year’s midterms, when the GOP will be defending its House and Senate majorities. Add to that list the vote this November over congressional redistricting in California, the three state Supreme Court contests in battleground Pennsylvania, and New York City’s high-profile mayoral election. NEW RNC CHAIR VOWS TO ‘RIDE THE PRESIDENT ALL THE WAY TO VICTORY’ “In today’s hyper-partisan environment, every election is examined and (over)analyzed for its implications for national parties,” veteran political scientist Wayne Lesperance told Fox News. Lesperance, president of New England College, said that this November’s election results “will serve as fodder for pundits to make conclusions about President Trump and the GOP or the prospects for Democrats to regain control of Congress.” Democrats, who are aiming to exit the political wilderness following last year’s election setbacks, when they lost control of the White House and Senate and failed to win back the House majority, are highlighting their success so far this year in special elections. Pointing to a special election victory last week in red state Iowa, where the Democrats flipped a GOP-held state Senate seat, Democratic National Committee (DNC) chair Ken Martin touted, “We have overperformed in every single election that’s been on the ballot since Donald Trump was inaugurated.” “There’s wind at our back,” Martin said. TRUMP, DEMOCRATS, FLOAT HOLDING COMPETING CONVENTIONS AHEAD OF MIDTERMS But special elections are far from perfect barometers of things to come. “It defies logic to assume that the results of a state Senate race in one state provide insight into national public opinion about the president or the party of opposition,” Lesperance said. And Republicans point to the multitude of problems facing the Democratic Party. “Sadly for the DNC, the truth is that Democrats’ approval rating is at a 30-year low as the party has hemorrhaged more than 2 million voters over the past four years,” Republican National Committee communications director Zach Parkinson told Fox News. Here’s a closer look at 2025’s top elections. Republicans believe they have momentum on their side as they try to win their first gubernatorial election in blue-leaning New Jersey in a dozen years. They point to Trump’s showing in the Garden State last November, when the president improved from a 16-point loss in the state in the 2020 election to a six-point deficit in 2024. Ciattarelli, who is making his third straight bid for New Jersey governor, cruised to the GOP nomination earlier this year thanks in part to Trump’s endorsement. And in his primary victory speech, Ciattarelli argued that Sherrill would try to nationalize the race by linking him to Trump. “Mark my words, while we focus on these key New Jersey issues, my Democratic opponent will do everything in her power to change the subject. Trust me, if this campaign were a drinking game and you took a shot every time Mikie Sherrill says Trump, you’re going to be drunk off your a– every day… between now and Nov. 4,” Cittarelli said. Sherrill, a former officer in the U.S. Navy and a former federal prosecutor before first winning election to Congress in 2018, is the polling frontrunner in the general election showdown. Murphy, who was first elected governor in 2017, is term-limited. Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears is facing off against former Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger in the race to succeed GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin. Youngkin is prevented from running for re-election, as Virginia’s constitution does not allow sitting governors to seek consecutive terms. The 61-year-old Earle-Sears was born in the Caribbean island nation of Jamaica and immigrated to the U.S. at the age of 6. She served in the Marines and is a former state lawmaker who made history four years ago when she won election as Virginia’s first female lieutenant governor.  Spanberger, age 46, was born in New Jersey. The former intelligence officer in the CIA won election to Congress in 2018 before securing re-election in 2020 and 2022. The winner in November will make history as Virginia’s first female governor in the commonwealth’s four-century-long history. Additionally, if Earle-Sears comes out on top, she will become the nation’s first Black woman to win election as governor. Trump and his polices are a major issue in the state’s gubernatorial showdown. The president’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been on a mission this year to chop government spending and cut the federal workforce. The moves by DOGE, which was initially steered by Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, have been felt acutely in suburban Washington’s heavily populated northern Virginia, with its large federal workforce. Kyle Kondik, the managing editor of the nonpartisan political handicapper Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the