Interview with Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll on “Face the Nation” – November 16, 2025
Margaret Brennan: We want to turn now to some of the challenges faced by the U.S. military, and we’re joined by the Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll. Good morning, thank you for being here.
Secretary of the United States Army Dan Driscoll: Thank you so much for having me.
Margaret Brennan: A lot to get to with you. Just quickly on news of the day, the president did say he “sort of” made up his mind on Venezuela. I know this is the Marines, this is the Navy that are deployed. But does the Venezuelan army pose any kind of threat to the U.S. if action is taken?
Sec. Driscoll: I think that the President and Secretary of War have spent a lot of time thinking about what is the best thing they can do for the American people, and I can speak from the Army’s perspective, which is, we have a lot of training in that part of the world. We’re reactivating our jungle school in Panama, we would be ready to act on whatever the president and Sec. War needed.
Margaret Brennan: But no orders beyond these exercises at this point?
Sec. Driscoll: I—we don’t talk about those kinds of things, but we would be ready if asked.
Margaret Brennan: I do want to ask you about what has been happening with this shutdown. The government’s now funded through January 30. You did get from Congress full-year funding for veterans affairs and military construction, a few other measures in this short-term bill. But we have seen the shutdown hit military bases and hit military families. Costly. $400 million or more in emergency loans from USAA. How do you insulate the force so that the next shutdown doesn’t hit these families the way it did this time?
Sec. Driscoll: I think the shutdown is indicative of one of the bigger problems that we as a nation have had. If you look back over the last 30 or 40 years, one of the reasons we’ve had such bad outcomes when we spend the American taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars—and we go buy things that our soldiers will need to fight, when we build things where our soldiers and their families will live—we are such a bad customer. When you’re on the other side of the deal with us and you have to deal with shutdowns, it’s tough. This shutdown will take months and months for us to get back and going on these projects.
This is part of the calcification of our system that, under President Trump, we are uniquely able to try to go after a lot of these things and actually get our Army and their families living in better areas, and get our soldiers ready for the modern fight. And the shutdown does not help.
Margaret Brennan: Let me ask you about the modern fight. The President cited gaps in law enforcement authorities, some of them lapsed during the shutdown, I understand, and he’s talking about trying to close enforcement gaps when it comes to drones. What authorizations do you need?
Sec. Driscoll: So under Secretary of War Hegseth, the United States Army has been put in charge of the counter-drone threat for the Pentagon. We are working hand in glove with the broader law enforcement agencies. Just last week, we had a meeting right outside the White House to discuss this problem, because it is different from nearly anything we’ve faced in a long time. It is a flying IED.
Margaret Brennan: IED, the explosive—
Sec. Driscoll: IED, improvised explosive device. They’re cheap, you can 3D print them at home, and they cross borders incredibly quickly. What you basically need is a digital layer to exchange information and sensing, allowing the closest person or effector on the ground to be able to take out a drone. Senator Cotton is right: this is the threat of humanity’s lifetime.
What’s occurring in Ukraine and Russia—the speed and scale of devastation that drones can cause—is unprecedented. We as a federal government have got to lead on it. But I’m really optimistic. This is actually something we are doing right.
We are partnering with federal law enforcement. In a couple of weeks, we’re having the Sheriff’s Association come. We were just at the NYPD. We include all of the different law enforcement agencies, thinking about borders, ports, upcoming NFL games, the Olympics, and the World Cup. This is something we as a nation can lead on. Under President Trump’s leadership, we are moving fast on this problem.
Margaret Brennan: And this is about radar jamming of drones to take them out, not exploding them?
Sec. Driscoll: The problem with drone defense is that you need layered defenses. One solution does not work. If you just try to jam them—look at Ukraine; people have started to hardwire drones, so you can’t do RF jamming on a hard-wired drone. There are things like net guns making a comeback. We’re using all sorts of solutions and tools, which makes it even more complicated.
When you’re near an airport and doing this in your own homeland, you have different authorities. Much of this is a human problem of communication, command and control, and having a layered set of solutions to use for any given problem.
Margaret Brennan: So you’re talking here, at the homeland, about events like the U.S. hosting the Olympics, the World Cup, even the Super Bowl. Should there be restrictions in this country on who is able to own and operate drones?
Sec. Driscoll: I’m pretty optimistic that we will figure out a solution to know what’s in the sky at every moment across our country, all at once. Think of the President’s vision like a “golden mini dome”: for a World Cup site, we are focused on being able to see everything in the area, have all the interceptors needed, and train the different forces who will need to act.
So, to your question, we are trying to design a system where Americans will be able to fly drones, so commercial companies like Amazon can use drones for delivery—this is the future of commercial drones. We’ll have to de-conflict the skies, working closely with the FAA. It’s a big topic. I check in with Secretary of War Hegseth on this almost weekly.
Margaret Brennan: When we last saw the President of Ukraine, Zelenskyy, at the White House, he brought up on camera that they have great drones they want to sell or provide to the United States. You referred to Ukraine as the “only Silicon Valley of warfare” right now. What do you mean? Are they really ahead of the United States on innovation?
Sec. Driscoll: I think what’s happening is fascinating. In Operation Spider’s Web in Russia, Ukrainians used probably a couple hundred thousand dollars worth of drones to take out nearly $10 billion worth of Russian equipment. I think what’s amazing is that our country recognizes where we need to innovate quickly.
What we’re doing with drones, very differently than in the last 50 or 60 years, is welcoming American industry in. We just ran an AI war game with 15 of the top CEOs in the nation, collectively worth about $18 trillion in enterprise value. We said, “Howdy, can you help us?” We’re working daily with them to adapt their tech innovations to help with data in contested environments, logistics 6,000 miles away, and facing an enemy trying to contest us.
Margaret Brennan: So you see the battlefield in Ukraine as a kind of test lab for future warfare. Can you convince some of your fellow Republicans that there is value in that fight, especially those who are isolationist and don’t want involvement in Ukraine, even financially?
Sec. Driscoll: I haven’t talked to a single person who believes we shouldn’t be learning from what’s happening in Ukraine. All the equipment and exquisite features we will need come from data sets Ukrainians are gathering for their generative AI models—from drones in flight to counter-drone tactics, taking info from sensors. It’s an incredible treasure trove of information for future warfare.
Many questions remain on how to execute the President’s peace agenda in the region. I haven’t been to the White House where that subject hasn’t come up. We want peace so the American industrial base can thrive globally, but right now, we have to focus on this part of the world.
Margaret Brennan: Well, you’re at the Department of War.
Sec. Driscoll: Yes.
Margaret Brennan: You announced the Army wants to buy a million drones over the next two to three years. The Navy, Marines, and Air Force will obviously be involved in any war in the Pacific, but you’ve got to defend American bases. How do you think of the threat from China there? I’ve read you think they’re ahead of America.
Sec. Driscoll: We’re working on something with Congress called SkyFoundry. The idea is to get it right from the start.
Historically, the Army has either been all in—making drones itself—or completely out, leaving it to private industry. That’s not how we’re doing it with drones. Ukraine manufactures about four million drones a year; China is at 12 to 14 million a year.
Margaret Brennan: Wow.
Sec. Driscoll: As a nation, we will have to rely on our private sector. We will invest in components like sensors, brushless motors, and circuit boards that are difficult for private companies to get now. The Army will build these on our bases and enable private partners to purchase them. We will make drones, private partners will make drones, and we will catch up and surpass China incredibly quickly.
Margaret Brennan: Secretary, thank you for your time. I want to make the point that you are taking questions, which is unusual these days since the Pentagon has restricted access to reporters. It’s important that the American people hear about their own security, as well as about the military’s three million or more employees. So thank you. We’ll be right back.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dan-driscoll-army-secretary-face-the-nation-transcript-11-16-2025/