Reference News Network, October 19 report: The U.S. "Military Times" website published an article titled "The U.S. Army's Ambitious Drone Plan Faces Challenges in Mass Production" on October 15. The author is Jane Jadson. The summary of the article is as follows:

The U.S. Army is fully pushing for the transformation of its aging domestic industrial base to build a modern drone factory network, but has come to deeply realize that the difficulty of moving from prototype to mass production is far greater than expected.

"We understand manufacturing, and that's not a problem, but drones are different," said Christopher Mohan, acting commander of the U.S. Army Materiel Command, in a recent interview with Defense News. "We can make wiring harnesses, and we can produce some microelectronic components, but for parts like brushless motors, we currently don't have the production capability and must purchase specialized equipment to manufacture them."

This move by the U.S. Army is largely due to lessons learned from the battlefield in Ukraine. In Ukraine, cheap drones and loitering munitions have not only reshaped the battlefield but also put traditional forces at a disadvantage.

In contrast, the U.S. has made slow progress in drone mass production, relying for a long time on commercial suppliers and small-scale trial production. Officials say this gap highlights the urgency of establishing a domestic high-volume industrial network capable of rapidly deploying thousands of drones.

The U.S. Army's "Skyforge" program was established to address this issue, but the Army still faces three major obstacles—technical, administrative, and financial—in advancing the project. The project is transforming former repair shops and armories that once produced tank parts and shells into a distributed drone factory network.

The U.S. Army's domestic industrial base is struggling to build its drone production capacity. Eloy Martinez, commander of the Rock Island Arsenal in Illinois, said in a recent interview that unlike Ukraine, "we don't have that sense of urgent survival."

"We have to comply with a large number of laws and regulations... administrative processes always slow down the progress," he said.

Brigadier General Beth Bain, commander of the U.S. Army Tank Automotive and Armaments Command, emphasized during an interview at Rock Island that the Army must find ways to accelerate quickly now. Bain worked for six months in the Ukrainian Security Assistance Organization in the summer and autumn of 2023. "I witnessed this conflict firsthand, and I came back with a burning sense of urgency," she said. "We must make adjustments."

The Rock Island Arsenal is ready for 3D printing of drones. It has already invested heavily in purchasing and installing a high-tech advanced manufacturing facility within the base. One of the buildings is equipped with various printers that can produce a wide range of parts using metal, composite materials, and other materials.

The Rock Island Arsenal is eagerly awaiting the arrival of 3D printing equipment. Once operational, the equipment will be able to produce 120,000 drone airframes per year.

The Tobyhanna Army Depot in Pennsylvania will focus on the production of wiring harnesses, microelectronic components, and brushless motors, while the Red River Army Depot in Texas will be responsible for battery production and drone assembly.

Mohan emphasized that the "Skyforge" program is not "a specific location, but a concept." This networked model aims to allow each site to focus on a specific part of the manufacturing process, while sharing data, digital design plans, and software updates through a central database.

"We must establish this digital database," Mohan said. "This way, not only can we share electronic files of printed parts, but we can also own the technical data."

Martinez said the Army is still refining the specific requirements for drones. "They want a drone as a product, but they don't clearly specify which type or what performance features it should have," he said. "So we are working hard to clarify these details."

Mohan said that achieving the initial goal of producing 10,000 drones per month would require an investment of about $197 million, of which $75 million will be used for building production capabilities for brushless motors and wiring harnesses.

The U.S. Army also plans to invest an additional $150 million annually over the next three years to maintain and expand this production project. This modernization initiative is closely related to the broader U.S. strategy of reducing dependence on overseas suppliers.

Greg Leppert, deputy commander of the Rock Island Arsenal, said, "We are at the critical point of accelerating drone mass production. Once the project is fully operational, the capacity will be very considerable." (Translated by Yang Ke)

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7562826842604913152/

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