Lethality Is Top Priority, US Army Secretary Driscoll Says

Daniel Driscle is only two months before his new post as secretary of the 26th army, but the former 38 -year -old armor officer and veteran of the war in Iraq knows what he wants: lethality.

Everything in the American army that does not advance this objective could be extinguished, he told Business Insider during a call this week. This could mean changes in training to force the structure, even the jet of inherited systems, said its staff.

Lettality is a masterlier for the Ministry of Defense under the Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. It was also a fundamental objective – and a point of discussion – in previous Trump and Bidies administrations, but with different interpretations. The subjective measurement stick is what programs are assessed.

“What happened is a digging of many tools that we have given to our soldiers,” said Driscle, former officer of the 10th Mountain Division of the Army, in BI during his official visit to Alaska this week to observe the 11th airborne division.

DC decision-makers “optimized for almost all that the soldier in their decision-making,” he said, arguing that the acquisition process for new capacities and programs needs a overhaul and that the individual soldier's ability to effectively initiate the enemy must be at the forefront of each decision.

This thrust could force a reassessment of the ancient American army systems which could be vulnerable in a future fight.

Driscoll has suggested reducing training requirements so that soldiers “return to the heart of the things they have to do to be good in their work”, removing excess or useless elements. “If this is not directly in correlation with lethality, we get rid of it,” he said.

From the point of view of the military, lethality is essentially a question of capacity to engage an enemy and to effectively put ammunition to the fatal effect, but what is considered to constitute a force capable of doing it varies.

What is lethality?

During the first term of President Donald Trump, the defense secretary at the time, James Mattis, a retirement general of the Marine Corps, made construction a more fatal combat force a priority of the Pentagon. Letheast was also a common subject in the Biden administration, although the current administration accused its predecessors of focusing too much on the superfluous programs.

Lettality is an essential word word in the lexicon of the Pentagon and for longtime army programs. The project manager Soldier Lethality, for example, develops new generation rifles and machine guns for soldiers. An interfunctional team of the same name designs systems to help soldiers finish and destroy the enemy. The term has also been the subject of many professional panels and research documents by soldiers.

For this administration, Trump, Hegseth and other military leaders are all all to launch everything they consider not essential for preparation for Warfighter. This included programs of diversity, equity and inclusion, the initiatives of climate change and other projects.

“It all starts and ends with warriors in training and on the battlefield”, ” Hegseth said This week at Army War College. “We leave ignorance and weakness behind us and refocus on lethality, meritocracy, responsibility, norms and preparation.”

The programs have been closed. Billions of dollars in contracts have been reduced. Always, Many of the plans offered are early concepts, and what considerably increased focus on lethality will mean for the future of the American army is not yet clear, in particular non -lethal and non -combatants roles which support other missions.

For the army, said Driscoll, he wants to see better preparation for combat. Speaking at Bi, he underlined the constant work of the 11th air division on adjustment equipment, weapons, equipment and vehicles at cold temperatures and difficult conditions of the Arctic.

“They were not focused on things like PowerPoint slides and how they could deliver better work products to the Pentagon,” he said about the 11th airborne division. Instead, they are “in the world, determining what we have to do as an army”.

Lieutenant-Colonel Jeff Tolbert, Driscoll's public affairs advisor, told Bi that the increased accent on lethality could mean suppressing inherited equipment and vehicles that are not necessary for future wars, such as old armored vehicles and command posts that are detectable and targets with electronic war.

Instead, new generation technologies – drones and other unrelated systems, robotics, integration of the human machine, improved night vision equipment and more manageable vehicles and training is a higher interest in the army. The integration of communication which informs commanders better to make decisions is also crucial.

The army focused on these new emerging systems, learning a lot from the war of Ukraine about the need for more recent technologies, drones, the role of the reservoir on the battlefield and mechanized war. Driscoll was recently in Europe, where he said that many lessons were learned from the war, now in his third year.

Artificial intelligence will also help lettality in future war. Driscoll has hypothesized that within 12 months, “you will begin to see a generative AI appear, perhaps in certain cases of limited use, on the battlefield.”

Driscoll served in the army from 2007 to 2011, leaving service as a lieutenant. In 2009, he deployed in Baghdad, Iraq, in support of Operation Iraki Freedom. After leaving the active service, Driscoll frequented the Yale Law School, where he was classmate of Vice-President JD Vance. After receiving the appointment of the army secretary at the end of January, he was confirmed as the best civilian official of the service at the end of February.

In his first message to force after confirmation, the army secretary said: “You are part of the deadliest land combat strength in world history.”

“But”, continued Driscoll, “administrative burdens and unnecessary distractions have moved you away from what matters most. We will refocus, eliminate distractions and train you to fight and gain in the most disputed environments. Your country does not ask.”