Former US Army secretary Dan Driscoll has praised Ukraine’s military innovation as a model for modern warfare, warning that the world’s largest armed forces have failed to adapt quickly enough.
Speaking in Kyiv at the Yalta European Strategy forum, Mr Driscoll said there was “an inflection point in warfare” as militaries sought to respond to the rapid development of drones, artificial intelligence and battlefield technology.
He appeared alongside Eric Schmidt, the former Google chief executive who now runs the US defence company Perennial Autonomy. The discussion was moderated by CNN presenter Fareed Zakaria on the second day of the annual conference, organised by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation.
Mr Driscoll and Mr Schmidt highlighted Ukraine’s DELTA software platform, which brings together information from radars, sensors and soldiers to give military commanders a more complete view of the battlefield.
Mr Driscoll said the system was more advanced than any comparable technology currently held by the US military. He added that increased processing power and expanded artificial intelligence capabilities could give Ukraine “an amazing opportunity for your nation to outrun the Russians, and out-innovate them, and out-partner so that you can crush them.”
Ukraine’s military innovation draws US focus
The former Army secretary said militaries needed to absorb the lessons of Ukraine’s war effort, which he described as “scrappy, fast, iterative” and driven by the rapid testing of new ideas.
He said the conflict with Iran had underlined the urgency of adapting defence systems. After recognising that the US did not have sufficient protection against Iranian Shahed drones, assistance came from Perennial Autonomy rather than the country’s largest defence contractors.
Mr Schmidt said his company supplied 13,000 Merops interceptor drones and 10,000 Bumblebee reconnaissance and strike drones, both of which have been widely used in Ukraine. “He literally called me and I said, of course, yes,” Mr Schmidt said, adding: “The question is, could the government have had a multi-year plan to anticipate this?”
The scale of Ukraine’s drone production was also raised during the discussion. When Mr Zakaria referred to an expected US purchase of 300,000 drones this year compared with Ukraine’s projected output of seven million, former CIA director David Petraeus called from the audience that the figure was closer to 10 million.
Mr Driscoll, an Iraq War veteran and former venture capitalist, served as Army secretary for 18 months and pushed for the US military to apply lessons from Ukraine. In January, the Army began introducing procurement reforms intended to put new weapons into soldiers’ hands more quickly.
His resignation was announced on August 31. Reports said he had clashed with Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth over the removal of senior officers and the Army’s modernisation efforts, although the White House did not give a reason for his departure.
In August, the US Army also phased out a drone battalion tasked with studying lessons from Ukraine’s drone warfare. Mr Driscoll did not address that decision or the departures of two senior officers who had backed the unit.
He defended the administration’s commitment to Ukraine while acknowledging that American support had fallen short of Kyiv’s expectations. “I believe the relationship that the U.S. has had with your country throughout this, has remained, not perhaps, as strong as you wanted, but from my position, it’s been unflinching in the desire for you to be successful,” he said.
Mr Driscoll said he had concluded that he could make a greater contribution outside government. “My highest and best use to make the world a little bit safer at this very scary time was to do it on the outside,” he said.
