Transforming to mobile brigade combat teams. Fielding the M1301 Infantry Squad Vehicle. Delivering Next-Generation Command and Control to a division. Launching from the Artillery Execution Suite. Establishing Joint Interagency Task Force 401 for counter-unmanned aerial system warfare. The list goes on.

The U.S. Army has accomplished much in the past year, and the pace of development, acquisitions and adoption of new systems is only expected to accelerate in the coming months, stemming largely from the rapid transformation of the digital environment, said Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George and industry leaders Oct. 15 at the Association of the U.S. Army’s 2025 Annual Meeting and Exposition.

“We talk a lot about the culture of innovation … we need everybody [involved so] we can move it to speed,” George said.

The key to the acceleration has been digital engineering—being able to build products by constructing computer models that can analyze every aspect of a product or system and fully integrate the lessons learned into the design and production.

Danny Deep, General Dynamics’ executive vice president for global operations, said that with the next-generation M1E3 tank, technology is helping build a modular, lighter, integrated and more lethal platform that soldiers will be able to use and provide feedback for integration into additional tanks.

“We're going to have it fielded in the next 12 months … see what [soldiers] don't like, and then, short order after that, we're going to start delivering this capability in the next two to three years, as opposed to the next 10. And digital engineering is part of the enabler for that,” Deep said.

George noted that this feedback, which includes the manufacturers soliciting input from soldiers but also the producers going to the field to see how troops adapt products and systems for use, will greatly influence newer models.

“The ISV [Infantry Squad Vehicle] is a good example. The ones that are coming into our formation are better than the ones that went in the original formation. Typically, we don't do that; you buy something, and you have it for 20 years,” George said.

The service also needs spending flexibility to be more adaptable and is working with Congress, George said. The services once had broad authorities to approve spending and are working to regain flexibility and have multiyear funding, he added.

“I’m encouraged that we are moving in the right direction,” George said, adding the service is working to streamline the acquisition process so that it is more efficient and transparent.

The Army’s transformation to digital engineering isn’t complete, noted industry leaders who said some offices still require two-dimensional, physical drawings.

Col. Ryan Howell, acting deputy program executive officer for Ground Combat Systems, said while younger service members are digital natives, many engineers have been schooled on the physical aspects of their jobs.

“I can use digital engineering tools to the maximum extent they're available, and I can access them, and we collaborate safely in order to achieve a desired tactical outcome, and that's where the environment is changing. And my peers … they're moving there,” Howell said.

Reflecting on the historic context of the defense industry’s contributions to the nation’s successes on the battlefield—notably the rapid production lines that led to winning World War II—retired Maj. Gen. Pete Johnson, vice president of business development for integrated vehicles at General Motors Defense, said industry must be part of the solution for building the Army of tomorrow.

“It was through the sheer will and ability for American industry to step up and play,” Johnson said. “If the big one [happens, we] better to be in in this area now to be part of the conversation.”

— Patricia Kime for AUSA