"We still have just over 100,000 Humvees," Alex Miller, the Army’s Chief Technology Officer, told Fox News Digital, speaking about the now-obsolete legacy vehicle first introduced in the 1980s. (Reuters/Romeo Ranoco/File Photo)
"We’re playing by the same post-Cold War rules that told us if you have a requirement, you’re going to keep on buying it," Miller said. "Because the requirements process and the acquisition process and the fielding process sort of never changed, we find ourselves in this conundrum where we still have just over 100,000 Humvees."
Despite introducing newer vehicles like the JLTV – designed to replace the Humvee with better armor and mobility – Miller says the rapid pace of technological change and emerging threats have left even those newer systems at risk of becoming obsolete.
"Even though we continue to buy them and have them in the budget," he said, "that might not be the right answer either."
Miller laid out the Army's plans to solve a decades-long issue at the Pentagon, bringing new weapons systems from the proposal stage to the battlefront before technology renders them outdated – just as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a new memo directing an overhaul of the Army's acquisitions process.
"To build a leaner, more lethal force, the Army must transform at an accelerated pace by divesting outdated, redundant, and inefficient programs, as well as restructuring headquarters and acquisition systems," Hegseth wrote.
The RQ-4 had an impressive payload capacity of 3,000 pounds and advanced reconnaissance capabilities - at an enormous cost. (Erik Hildebrandt/Northrop Grumman/Handout via Reuters.)
Now, according to Miller, the requirements documentation for things like next-generation unmanned aerial vehicles has been whittled down from between 200 and 300 pages to 10.
In other cases, modernization isn't always necessary, according to Abigail Blanco, defense expert and professor at the University of Tampa.
Up until a few years ago when it was finally retired, one of the primary reconnaissance systems in the War on Terror was the RQ-4 Global Hawk.
The RQ-4 had an impressive payload capacity of 3,000 pounds and advanced reconnaissance capabilities - at an enormous cost. Each one was originally slated to cost $20 million but wound up costing $220 million per unit.
"If you look at reports from the Air Force, they repeatedly stated that instead of the [RQ-4], they preferred the U-2 spy plane, which, to be clear, is a relic in military terms. It's from the Cold War period. And so it's not always clear that the modernization piece is desirable."
Some lawmakers and defense officials initially resisted the Army’s push to streamline systems.
"The OSD comptroller pushed back really hard. Some parts of the Hill pushed back really hard," Miller said. "But we ran a really aggressive ground game.… We’re not asking for more money. We’re asking to spend taxpayer dollars better."
The problem, according to Blanco, is Congress has long continued to budget for equipment way beyond its point of usefulness.
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"If you are an elected representative and your district manufactures Humvees or tanks, you have a really strong vested interest in ensuring that that technology continues to be produced, regardless whether or not it's operationally necessary."
In the end, Miller said, acquisition reform isn’t about cutting corners – it’s about keeping pace with an adversary who doesn’t care about red tape.
"The environment, the threat, and the reality change so fast," he said. "We have permission to just be ruthless about working with commercial entities ... and figuring out what can we get in the hands of soldiers faster."
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/army-tech-chief-pentagon-must-break-bureaucracy-win-wars