By Nash Seman
The Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, District of Columbia, pulsed with energy this week as the Association of the United States Army Annual Meeting and Exposition 2025 unfolded from October 13 to 15. Drawing over thirty thousand attendees from more than eighty countries, the event themed “Agile, Adaptive, Lethal: Winning at the Pace of Change” highlighted the United States Army’s aggressive transformation amid escalating global threats. Military leaders, defense executives, and policymakers showcased priorities like energy independence, unmanned systems, and resilient supply chains, with standout announcements on nuclear microreactors and a pilotless Black Hawk variant stealing the spotlight.
A centerpiece of Day 2 was the unveiling of the Janus Program, the Army’s bold initiative to deploy commercial microreactors on domestic military bases by September 2028. Announced by Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and Energy Secretary Chris Wright during a Warriors Corner panel, the program targets factory built fission plants generating one to twenty megawatts, compact enough to truck to sites and operate for years without refueling. Led by Jeff Waksman, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Installations, Energy and Environment, Janus builds on the Pentagon’s Project Pele and fulfills a May executive order from President Trump. Waksman stressed its seriousness: “This is a funded effort. This is not intended to be a press release project,” with hundreds of millions in requested funding over five years and initial hardware by 2027. Partnering with the Defense Innovation Unit and Energy Department, the Army aims to power bases independently of vulnerable civilian grids and diesel supplies, addressing modern warfare’s soaring energy needs for drones and directed energy weapons.
The nuclear push underscores strategic vulnerabilities, such as Guam’s reliance on foreign oil tankers for over ninety percent of its power, which could be severed in conflict. “The only solution to the tyranny of fuel is nuclear power,” Waksman argued, noting initial deployments will prioritize continental United States sites with community buy in. Transatlantic echoes were clear: Europe could adopt similar tech to break Russian energy dominance, as seen in the United Kingdom’s investment in Rolls Royce modular reactors. Challenges include United States shortages in nuclear engineering talent and qualified suppliers, prompting calls to consolidate supply chains like those shared by Boeing and Airbus. The milestone based model seeks commercially operated reactors, spurring private firms like BWXT, Oklo, and Kairos Power toward mass production.
In a tech highlight, Lockheed Martin’s Sikorsky unit revealed the S 70 UHawk on Day 1, a fully autonomous evolution of the fifty year old Black Hawk helicopter, informed by Ukraine’s drone warfare and the Army’s uncrewed pivot. The cockpit free design expands cargo space by twenty five percent, adds clamshell doors and a ramp for deploying wheeled drones or HIMARS rocket pods, and revives decommissioned UH 60L airframes. Built in just three hundred days, the prototype leverages Sikorsky’s MATRIX autonomy tech, allowing one soldier with a tablet to assign missions that the aircraft executes independently before reporting back. “We are not putting soldiers at risk in those first contact situations,” said Sikorsky’s Erskine “Ramsey” Bentley. Flight tests begin in 2026, enabling “uncrewed teaming” for mass effects ahead of manned forces. Army Aviation commander Major General Clair Gill affirmed rotorcraft’s future relevance, even as the service retires legacy fleets.
Supply chain fragility cast a shadow over the innovations, spotlighted by last week’s deadly explosion at Tennessee’s Accurate Energetic Systems facility, which killed sixteen and disrupted munitions production. Govini Chief Executive Officer Tara Murphy Dougherty noted Accurate Energetic Systems had been flagged as a vulnerability due to its monopoly on pyrotechnics for nuclear ordnance and rocket motors, potentially delaying everything from small arms to the GBU 57 bunker buster used against Iranian sites. “This fragility is super prevalent,” she warned, critiquing the Pentagon’s hands off approach to small suppliers. Secretary Driscoll echoed this in his keynote, slamming contractor markups like a forty seven thousand dollar helicopter knob and demanding “right to repair” rights and three dimensional printing to cut delays. “Right now, our Army is a terrible customer,” he said.
Beyond headlines, AUSA buzzed with unmanned advancements: L3Harris’ upgraded Diamondback unmanned ground vehicle, Israel Aerospace Industries’ robotic route clearers, Anduril’s Barracuda 500 strikes, and deals like Hanwha Aerospace’s Gray Eagle co development. Quality of life nods included “campus style dining” pilots at bases like Fort Bragg. Chief of Staff General Randy George emphasized adapting to “cheap drones and lethal technology.”
