The U.S. Army plans to shift to a Silicon Valley model as it works to speed up the development, buying and fielding of new equipment — and traditional defense prime contractors shouldn’t expect to continue business as usual.

“In just a matter of weeks, we will announce changes to how we buy military equipment,” Army Secretary Dan Driscoll said Monday at the annual meeting of the Association of the United States Army in Washington. “We are going to completely disrupt the system that held the Army back for decades and lined the primes’ pockets for so long.”

The service also will repair more of its own equipment rather than ceding that space to contractors — a status quo that has cost time and money, he said. Driscoll held up a part for the UH-60 Black Hawk that he said breaks frequently and costs more than $14,000 for the vendor to replace.

A version of the part 3-D printed and reverse-engineered by the Army “is 300% stronger and 78% cheaper,” and can be mass produced quickly, he added.

Army leaders want to expand upon small-scale efforts to get new equipment into soldiers’ hands quickly — even if they do not fully address the need. Army leaders have been granted “unprecedented top cover” from President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Driscoll said.

“After seeing the power of combining venture capital money and mentorship with startup culture, I can say unequivocally that the Silicon Valley approach is absolutely ideal for the Army,” the Army secretary said.

Driscoll said a risk-averse approach to weapons-buying has predominated in the aftermath of the Cold War and it has cost billions of dollars and years of lost opportunity, all while foreign militaries innovate and upgrade. Drones are playing a huge role in the war in Ukraine, and Kyiv is constantly updating the software that powers its systems, while U.S. soldiers contend with older systems.

“Before and after work, our soldiers live in the real world,” Driscoll said. “But, while they’re on duty they time-travel to the early 2000s — at best.”

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