The U.S. Army is celebrating 250 years on Saturday. As the largest and oldest branch of the U.S. military, the Army’s involvement in America’s wars stretches back centuries. But in the 21st century, the Army is confronting a new battlefield — technology.
“The Army does face two technical challenges,” said Mark Cancian, a retired Marine colonel and senior advisor with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “One is Golden Dome and the other one is counter-UAS — that is, uncrewed aerial systems.”
Cancian said President Donald Trump’s proposed Golden Dome defense system will require significant investment and effort from the Army, particularly in ground-based missile defense.
“The challenges, particularly of continental air defense — defense against cruise missiles — is going to be quite extreme,” Cancian said. “So, there’ll be a lot of technical challenges there.”
One of those challenges includes how to deal with drones, especially small, inexpensive commercial models that can be weaponized.
“Something small, like these quadcopters that you can buy at a store, those are very difficult to counter in volume,” Cancian said. “Sure, you could use a $20,000 or $50,000 missile to take down a $100 quadcopter, but that’s not a good long-term solution.”
That’s an issue Army Secretary Dan Driscoll raised during congressional testimony on June 4, pointing to how Ukrainian forces have used small drones to inflict significant damage on Russian warplanes.
“The world saw, in near real-time, how readily available technology can disrupt established power dynamics,” Driscoll said. “Drones are but one example of a broader shift the Army needs to keep pace with.”
That includes recruiting soldiers with more technical skills, something experts say is easier said than done.
“This is going to be very difficult. And my personal opinion is that the military needs access to these kinds of skills, but they don’t need to put them on active duty, they don’t need to put them in uniform,” Cancian said. “They can get these skills through government civilians, where the recruiting is much easier and the standards much broader.”
