longer.blue

“Former Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, in his first interview since resigning in August, told Rolling Stone he tried to drag the Army into the age of cheap drones and AI, only to watch Pete Hegseth fire the generals leading that effort. Driscoll, a combat veteran and Yale Law classmate of JD Vance, championed an “Amazon for war” marketplace to buy counter-drone systems quickly, cut $48 billion from the Army budget over five years, and created a “drones first” experimental battalion that trained with Ukrainian advisers. “When you’re an American soldier, you would get to work every day, and you basically step back like 20 or 30 years with tech,” he said, calling it “humiliating” to see how fast Ukraine adapted with a far smaller budget. But Hegseth forced out Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George in a “15-second call,” and later pushed into retirement Gen. Christopher Donahue, whom Driscoll wanted as George’s successor. According to news reports and a former Pentagon official, Driscoll told Trump in an Oval Office meeting that he was resigning because Hegseth had fired everyone working to modernize the Army.“ from Aaron Parnas newsletter