daniel driscoll: Army Secretary and the Defense Industry's "Con" – What Reddit is Saying

Same Old Song, Different Verse?

So, the Army's doing another "shakeup" of its acquisition structure, huh? Color me skeptical. We've heard this song and dance before. Promises of cutting bureaucracy, getting tech to soldiers faster... It all sounds great on paper, but let's be real, the Pentagon is where good intentions go to die a slow, agonizing death by committee.

Army Secretary Dan Driscoll is talking tough, though. He's calling out the "defense industrial base broadly, and the primes in particular" for "conning the American people and the Pentagon." Bold words, I'll give him that. But is it anything more than lip service? The defense industry doesn't just hand out contracts; it buys influence. And those lobbyists ain't cheap. According to Driscoll, The defense industry ‘conned the American people and the Pentagon’: Army Secretary.

Driscoll claims they're flipping the script, going from 90% purpose-built military solutions to 90% commercially available stuff. He says that the Army has been a bad customer, and incentivized the "characteristics that they have today."

Okay, let's say, hypothetically, that Driscoll is serious. What happens when some Silicon Valley startup, flush with Army cash, realizes they can make even MORE money by jacking up prices and delivering half-baked tech? Will the Army suddenly develop a backbone and walk away? Don't hold your breath.

The "85% Solution" – A Recipe for Disaster

And here's another gem: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth (Driscoll's boss) wants to buy the "85% solution" and "iterate together over time to achieve the 100% solution."

Give me a break.

That's like saying, "We're gonna build a bridge, but we'll just skip a few supports and hope for the best." In what other industry is "good enough" actually acceptable when lives are on the line? Oh wait, I forgot – this is the military, where cost overruns and delays are practically a tradition.

This whole "Pathway for Innovation and Technology," or PIT, sounds like another bureaucratic black hole where good ideas go to get watered down and committee-ized until they're unrecognizable. No, wait. It's worse than that. It's a breeding ground for grifters and consultants who will happily bleed the taxpayer dry while delivering absolutely nothing of value.

But maybe... just maybe... I'm being too cynical. Maybe Driscoll and Hegseth are genuinely trying to shake things up. Maybe they actually believe they can fix the broken acquisition system. Maybe pigs will fly.

Drones, Drones Everywhere

Driscoll also mentioned the Army wants to buy a million drones in the next few years, while China is cranking out millions more.

Million drones? Where are they going to put them all? And who's going to fly them? Are we just going to end up with a bunch of expensive paperweights sitting in a warehouse somewhere? Probably. The U.S. Army is not going to give up it's traditional industrial base, offcourse. It's too big to fail.

Oh, and speaking of drones, remember that whole thing about Chinese state-sponsored hackers using AI to break into companies? And the U.S. has no commander in charge of Cyber Command for over eight months? And they've been cutting CISA's budget? Yeah, that's not terrifying at all.

So, What's the Real Story?

It's all smoke and mirrors. The Army ain't going to change unless Congress actually grows a pair and defunds the gravy train. Until then, it's just another round of musical chairs in the Pentagon.