Sometimes a small story gives you a big idea, and today it's a report this week out of Ft. Campbell, Ky., where soldiers from the 2nd Brigade Combat Team of the 101st Airborne Division launched a deadly new DIY project. Taking inspiration from the Russo-Ukraine War and a dash of "necessity is the mother of invention," soldiers are 3D printing their own drones.
The unit was faced with a couple of problems when it came to procuring the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) its soldiers needed to stay lethal in a combat environment increasingly dominated by tiny flying bombs and surveillance systems.
One problem was the old Army attitude where soldiers were disciplined for losing assets, even though drones are supposed to be cheap, plentiful, and expendable. Changing a military mindset is never easy, but seeing what drones could do in the Russo-Ukraine War got the job done.
The second problem was political, or "fiscal constraints," as the 101st's CO, Maj. Gen. Brett Sylvia delicately put it. "Based off of the fact that we still don’t necessarily have a budget," he told Defense Scoop this week, "we’ve been operating under a continuing resolution [since the beginning of fiscal 2025], and there are some fiscal constraints associated with what we’ve been doing now."
That's the problem with Congress's irresponsible reliance on continuing resolutions instead of doing its actual job of producing a budget every year. Our armed forces are stuck with the same amount of money for the same items each year, regardless of what our men and women require to perform their missions.
Gen. Sylvia said, "The team went back and said, 'OK, well, if we can’t buy anymore, let’s start making our own.'" Then they did just that, courtesy of 3D printing and a small budget for off-the-shelf motors, remote controls, and the like.
Sylvia also said that the 101st spent “a bunch of money” last year to purchase just 20 or so UASs, including drones from Skydio, for a major training exercise involving the division's 2nd Brigade. Since then — and at a fraction of the cost for Pentagon-approved UASs — they've been able to 3D print more than 100 small drones.
Left unsaid: no contractors' palms were greased, no procurement officer was promised a cushy job at Lockheed after retirement, and no congresscritters were treated to steak and scotch at a D.C.-area steakhouse. Some soldiers used inexpensive gear and a little imagination to roll their own — designing cheap drones that served their needs, not some gold-plated kit that padded a contractor's bottom line.
“What works in a lab with a very technical expert may not necessarily work with a 19-year-old soldier who’s out there in the rain and the mud. We got to figure out how do we do that. We got to get it out there quicker,” Sylvia said. It takes about 18 hours to "print" a single drone airframe, but the Army is looking into ways to speed that up.
That's the part of this little story that gave me a big idea: local fundraisers, held all across the nation, to buy 3D printers and supplies for your local Army, Air Force, Navy, or Marine unit. Active duty? Reserves? National Guard? These 3D printers are so inexpensive now that it wouldn't take much effort to cover them all.
What will they come up with? Nobody knows, and that's the whole point. But with the entire military making local decisions — fast and cheap — about each unit's actual needs, the possibilities are endless.
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