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Army cuts helicopters, pushes ‘Amazon for war’ as drone combat reshapes military
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Army leaders signaled Wednesday that drone-heavy warfare and recent conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East are reshaping the service’s aviation and missile defense strategy, driving new scrutiny of helicopter programs and costly Patriot interceptor systems.
The comments come as the Army’s fiscal year 2027 budget request sharply cuts the funding request for helicopter procurement, including reducing Apache funding from roughly $361.7 million to about $1.5 million, Black Hawk funding from about $913 million to roughly $39.3 million and Chinook procurement from roughly $629 million to about $210 million, while increasing investment in drones, autonomy and low-cost battlefield technologies.
The transformation push is already extending beyond procurement. The Army previously announced plans to cut roughly 6,500 active-duty aviation positions over fiscal years 2026 and 2027 — including pilots, flight crews and maintainers — as leaders shift resources toward unmanned systems and drone warfare.
It remains unclear whether the procurement reductions ultimately will shrink aviation fleet sizes, extend the service life of aging aircraft or delay planned replacement cycles.
Army leaders suggested the battlefield lessons driving the changes are already shaping budget decisions, as the service redirects money away from some traditional aviation programs toward drones, autonomy and low-cost mass systems.
«Absolutely, as we look across the aviation portfolio … we’re re-looking that,» Assistant Army Secretary Brent Ingraham said during a Pentagon media roundtable Wednesday.
Ingraham said the Army is reassessing how traditional manned aircraft fit alongside larger unmanned systems increasingly capable of missions once handled by helicopters.
The proposed aviation cuts already have drawn concern on Capitol Hill.
During a recent Senate Armed Services Committee hearing May 12, Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., warned that the Army’s budget request included «zero H-64 Apaches, zero Chinook Block IIs and one UH-60 Black Hawk,» arguing the service was divesting critical capabilities before validating replacements.
«Your department’s budget request cuts over $5 billion from the industrial base in the aviation sector alone, effectively shutting down all current Army aviation platforms,» Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, pressed War Secretary Pete Hegseth during a May 12 House Appropriations hearing. «How did the department arrive at the conclusion that reducing procurement for these Army aviation platforms strengthens rather than weakens the aviation industrial base?»
Hegseth acknowledged the Pentagon was reconsidering parts of the plan.
«There are some very good things in the Army Transformation Initiative, and there are some things that we’ve needed to get another look at,» Hegseth told lawmakers during a House hearing after facing questions about the scale of the aviation cuts.
Hegseth said Pentagon leaders were focused on ensuring the Army does not create «aviation capability gaps» as it transitions toward more unmanned systems and next-generation technologies.
Army leaders signaled Wednesday that drone-heavy warfare and recent conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East are reshaping the service’s aviation and missile defense strategy, driving new scrutiny of helicopter programs and costly Patriot interceptor systems. (Al Drago/Reuters:Stephen Wormuth/Reuters)
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Army leaders said the rapid spread of cheap drones is forcing the Army to rethink how it buys and fields aircraft, missile defenses and battlefield technology.
«We know we don’t want to continue to use a Patriot missile to shoot down a cheap drone,» Ingraham said. «You’ve got to get on the right side of the cost curve.»
The concern has become increasingly urgent after the U.S. and its allies burned through large numbers of expensive missile defense interceptors during the Israel-Iran conflict and broader Middle East operations, fueling Pentagon concerns about stockpile depletion and the long-term sustainability of relying on multimillion-dollar defensive systems against cheap drones and missiles.
The Colombian army activated its first unmanned aircraft battalion at the military base in Tolemaida, Colombia, on Oct. 10, 2025, to counter illegal armed groups using drones in conflict. (Raul Arboleda/AFP)
Officials also described a new allied drone and counter-drone procurement marketplace designed to speed foreign military sales and standardize interoperable systems across partner nations. Driscoll compared the effort to «an Amazon for war.»
Officials said the marketplace is expected to become available to roughly 25 U.S. allies and partners worldwide, initially focused on drone and counter-drone systems before potentially expanding to additional capabilities and countries.
The platform will for now only allow allies to buy U.S. capabilities.
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The Army also is launching a rapid competition to develop low-cost interceptors designed to counter drones and cruise missiles without exhausting multimillion-dollar Patriot missile stocks.
Ingraham said companies will have roughly 120 days after an upcoming industry event to demonstrate technologies ranging from rocket motors and seekers to fully integrated interceptor concepts.
«Even if you don’t have it all on the ground … bring it,» he said.
The transformation effort reflects growing concern inside the Pentagon that cheap drones, autonomous systems and mass-produced weapons are rapidly changing the economics and survivability assumptions of modern warfare, particularly after conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East exposed vulnerabilities in traditional armored and aviation-heavy battlefield concepts.
Army leaders signaled that drone-heavy warfare and recent conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East are reshaping the service’s aviation and missile defense strategy, driving new scrutiny of helicopter programs and costly Patriot interceptor systems. (Anthony Bailey/Handout via Reuters)
Army leaders increasingly suggest future wars will rely less on small numbers of expensive manned platforms and more on large quantities of cheaper, networked and rapidly replaceable systems capable of surviving in drone-saturated battlefields.
Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll said at the roundtable that the service is attempting to overhaul what leaders view as decades of broken acquisition practices that left the Army too slow to adapt to rapidly changing battlefield conditions.
«How do we dig down deep into the system to change the broken processes that have led to so many bad outcomes over the last 30 years?» Driscoll said.
Driscoll said the Army had lost Congress’s trust after decades of acquisition failures and budget overruns.
«The United States Army had in some ways lost Congress’s trust over the last 30 years that we could do big new projects, keep them on time, keep them on budget,» he said.
He later referenced the Army’s now-canceled M10 Booker armored vehicle program as an example of the type of procurement failure leaders are trying to avoid.
«When we go to Congress and say, ‘Hey, trust us to develop a new platform. This one will not turn out like the Booker tank,’» Driscoll said.
Driscoll argued the Army already is trying to field new capabilities on dramatically accelerated timelines more similar to wartime adaptation cycles seen in Ukraine than traditional Pentagon acquisition schedules.
«When Operation Epic Fury kicked off, we were able to on day five go start the process to purchase 13,000 Merops counter-drone interceptors,» Driscoll said.
«By day 10, we had contracted for something we had never purchased before,» he added. «They were starting to flow into theater in the thousands by day 20.»
Army officials also said the service is trying to rapidly improve how weapons systems, sensors and battlefield networks communicate with one another after studying Ukraine’s ability to quickly integrate commercial and military technologies during the war.
«The Ukrainians were highlighting to us how their open architecture system allowed information to pass between nearly all of their sensors and radars,» Driscoll said. «That empowered so many things that they could do that we just can’t do yet.»
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«At this exact moment at Fort Carson, there are 450 developers and programmers jailbreaking all of our equipment,» he added.
«I’m cautiously optimistic within a month from now we will have jailbroken literally hundreds of pieces of equipment.»
conflicts defense, pentagon, drones, us army, spending
INTERNACIONAL
Turs, el primer agente turístico digital impulsado por Inteligencia Artificial en El Salvador
La industria turística de El Salvador incorpora una nueva herramienta digital con el lanzamiento de Turs, el primer super agente turístico impulsado por Inteligencia Artificial en el país.
La plataforma, presentada oficialmente el miércoles, busca transformar la forma en que los viajeros descubren y experimentan los destinos nacionales a través de la integración de tecnología avanzada y ofertas personalizadas.
Turs ofrece un sistema que conecta a turistas con una amplia variedad de opciones, desde rutas y atractivos hasta experiencias culturales y gastronómicas. El proyecto pone un énfasis especial en la interacción directa entre visitantes y anfitriones locales, con el propósito de destacar las historias y el valor humano detrás de cada recorrido.
El objetivo central, según los responsables de la plataforma, consiste en “mostrarle al mundo lo mejor de nuestro país” y fortalecer la reputación de El Salvador como destino turístico.
El lanzamiento de Turs representa un avance relevante para el sector turismo en un contexto de creciente digitalización global.
La plataforma se describe como una oportunidad para que millones de viajeros accedan a información actualizada, asesoría personalizada y una visión auténtica de la cultura salvadoreña. Los creadores del proyecto subrayan que cada experiencia promovida por el sistema lleva el sello de quienes hacen posible la hospitalidad local.
El sitio oficial de la plataforma, www.turslatam.com, ya se encuentra disponible para usuarios interesados en planificar su próxima visita a El Salvador.
Con esta iniciativa, el país busca posicionarse en el mapa internacional de innovación turística y responder a las nuevas tendencias de viaje que privilegian el acceso digital y las experiencias personalizadas.
El evento contó con la presencia de altos funcionarios y representantes del sector turístico, quienes destacaron el avance en políticas de seguridad y la apuesta por la innovación tecnológica para fomentar el turismo nacional e internacional.
La ministra de Turismo, Morena Valdez, y la viceministra de Relaciones Exteriores, Adriana Mira, participaron activamente en la presentación de la plataforma. Ambas funcionarias destacaron la importancia de la colaboración interinstitucional para fortalecer el sector y destacaron el respaldo del gobierno a la transformación digital como motor de desarrollo económico. “Esta nueva plataforma, Turs, está dando un valor agregado, que es que te ofrece una experiencia con los operadores turísticos locales en cada reservación”, expresó Valdez, citada por la Presidencia a través de su Secretaría
Por su parte, durante el evento, Raymond Villalta, fundador y presidente de Turs, resaltó el impacto positivo de las políticas de seguridad implementadas por el gobierno en la percepción internacional del país.
“El Salvador ahora lo podemos recorrer libremente, gracias a Dios, con seguridad, hacia todos lados. Gracias por todo ese apoyo, pero pasa algo; yo creo que le pasa mucho más al extranjero, que no conocemos todas las experiencias que se pueden vivir en El Salvador; conocemos las pupusas, la playa El Tunco, El Zonte y otros lugares preciosos; el lago de Coatepeque, lago de Ilopango y cada vez más cosas que hacer en el país”, afirmó Villalta, de acuerdo con la comunicación oficial de la Secretaría de Prensa de la Presidencia.
En el marco del acto, Villalta entregó un reconocimiento a la ministra de Turismo, Morena Valdez, por el reciente nombramiento de El Salvador como sede del Día Mundial del Turismo 2026.
Este logro fue celebrado como un hito sin precedentes para el país, ya que por primera vez será anfitrión de este evento internacional.
“Vamos a ser sede del Día Mundial del Turismo 2026 por primera vez en la historia de El Salvador; la verdad, me alegra ver a muchísimos actores del sector turístico de todas partes del territorio nacional”, señaló Valdez.
El Salvador,Turs,Turismo de El Salvador,Morena Valdez
INTERNACIONAL
The hidden left-wing network powering a ‘conservative’ rebellion against a major Trump priority
The AI data center backlash
Paul Gigot, Kim Strassel, Allyssia Finley, and Jason Riley discuss the growing progressive backlash against AI data centers. Citing environmental concerns, increased electricity prices, and potential job displacement, Bernie Sanders and AOC introduced legislation for a nationwide moratorium on new data center construction. The panel explores the economic implications and highlights the lack of clear evidence supporting claims of rising energy costs directly tied to data centers.
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A group billing itself as a grassroots conservative movement against new data centers carried out a series of nationwide protests enlisting the help of Green Party figures and Democratic-aligned activists, a Fox News Digital review found.
Though initially launched as a bipartisan project, Humans First has since become — in its own words — a «conservative social movement that is dedicated to ensuring that the future of AI is in the hands of everyday people.» Humans First’s nascent movement was supposed to build up to mass protests on July 18, when the organization says it sought to rally conservatives against the construction of new data centers.
The push put Humans First in tension with one of President Donald Trump’s major economic priorities — accelerating the data-center buildout needed to power America’s AI race.
TOP ENERGY GROUP WARNS WEALTHY FOREIGNERS ARE POTENTIALLY BANKROLLING ANTI-DATA CENTER CAMPAIGNS ACROSS US
Nevada Big Blind center. (Zanskar)
While right-wing activist Amy Kremer is the public face of Humans First, the group’s paper trail shows that the organization didn’t start with her or even another conservative. Incorporation records reviewed by Fox News Digital list staffers from the Center for AI Safety, a San Francisco-based nonprofit, as Humans First’s initial employees. The Center for AI Safety also provided a loan to Humans First to serve as start-up capital, NBC News previously reported.
In a similar vein, several of the local organizers named on Humans First’s website as planning the July 18 protests had backgrounds in left-of-center politics.
«I was one of the earliest leaders of the Tea Party movement in 2009, and I can tell you that the disconnect between the elites and the base that gave rise to the Tea Party movement can be seen today in the battle over AI data centers,» Kremer, chair of Humans First, told Axios in June.
During the Obama administration, Kremer was a top Tea Party activist and, more recently, she was one of the organizers of the «Save America» rally that preceded the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol — a role that later became a focal point during her unsuccessful 2022 run for a Georgia congressional seat.
Her group says the July 18 protests were meant to «give grassroots Americans, particularly grassroots conservatives, a voice in the critical debate over policies relating to the building of massive AI data centers.»
Despite Kremer’s GOP bona fides and her stated goal of mobilizing conservatives, Fox News Digital found that several listed protest organizers had left-wing, Green Party or Democratic-aligned backgrounds, including a transgender Green Party House candidate, local progressive activists and a Democratic state legislative candidate.
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The program offers paid training, travel support, lodging and a job offer for qualified graduates entering AI infrastructure work. (Meta)
At the bottom of the Humans First webpage advertising the protests, the organization stated that the events it is promoting have not «necessarily» been «fully vetted or endorsed by Humans First.»
Humans First’s website listed a chapter of the Illinois Green Party as organizers for a protest just outside Chicago.
Among other causes, the Illinois Green Party supports solidarity with Cuba, divesting from Israel, expanding abortion access, decriminalizing prostitution, restricting gun laws and impeaching Trump.
Also affiliated with the Illinois Green Party is Alexandria Keating-Sofiakis, a transgender activist and congressional candidate who organized a separate Humans First protest about 50 miles north-west of Chicago.
Kremer has repeatedly posted critical social media messages about transgender issues, Fox News Digital found.
Keating-Sofiakis’s campaign website lists support for the Green New Deal, expanded abortion rights, ending American support for Israel and Medicare-for-all. Though the two disagree on much, Keating-Sofiakis told Fox News Digital that opposition to data centers transcends traditional ideological boundaries and made working with Kremer feasible.
«Data centers are a cross-partisan problem,» Keating-Sofiakis said. «From a conservative worldview, the drop in property values, increase in water costs, as well as increase in electrical costs that are affiliated with data centers are all antithetical to conservative values. Likewise, from a progressive worldview, the ecological damage alone associated with data centers is more than enough justification to oppose them.»
Keating-Sofiakis also pointed out that local Green Party activists received support from prominent conservatives such as Tomi Lahren and Lara Trump in a recent effort to free dogs from a medical facility.
«I am no longer hesitant to work with conservative figures and organizations on issues we share in common,» Keating-Sofiakis told Fox News Digital.
600 GROUPS WITH $2B IN REVENUE MOBILIZE 3,000 MAY DAY PROTESTS IN A ‘RED-BLUE’ ALLIANCE, PROBE FINDS
Humans First defended its conservative credentials when reached by Fox News Digital.
«First off, we are happy to put our grassroots conservative and America First credentials up against anyone. I was one of the founders of the Tea Party movement back in 2009, and I was one of the earliest and most high profile Trump supporters back in 2015,» Kremer told Fox News Digital. «The men and women on our team are long-time conservative activists who have dedicated their lives to electing conservatives and fighting for conservative policies.»
Most of the official staff listed on Humans First’s website have spent a significant portion of their careers working in conservative politics.
«This line of attack is preposterous but not surprising. This is exactly the same line of attack we saw during the early days of the Tea Party. The establishment and their handmaidens in the media were willing to smear Tea Party activists as racists and bigots in their effort to defend the big interests of their corporate masters,» Kremer continued. «Instead of questioning our conservative credentials, how about asking how any so-called conservative can take money from the same big tech and big AI billionaires who have worked tirelessly to destroy the conservative movement over the last ten years.»
Fox News Digital obtained footage of five Humans First protests across California, Georgia, Missouri and South Carolina. Multiple demonstrators at the event in Gilroy, California, had signs protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement — a common antagonist for those on the left. Some of the protests were sparsely attended.
Nearly 1,000 miles south of its Green Party-linked protests in Illinois, Humans First’s protest page listed a Georgia activist group called People for Progress as the organizer of a local demonstration. The group was founded after the 2024 election to resist Trump’s agenda and protect «diversity, equity & justice.»
In Missouri, Humans First’s protest page listed the founder of CleanEarth4Kids as an organizer for a Springfield protest. CleanEarth4Kids has publicly urged followers to oppose several Republican-backed measures and support Democratic-backed bills. Ferguson Advocates for Civic Transparency (FACT), another group run by left-of-center individuals, organized an additional Humans First demonstration just outside of St. Louis.
MARXIST ORGANIZER LEADS CAMPAIGN AGAINST VIRGINIA AI DATA CENTER AS FOREIGN INFLUENCE CONCERNS MOUNT
A press release obtained by Fox News Digital shows that the featured speakers at the event included a former Democratic state lawmaker, a current Democratic candidate for the state legislature and a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
Lady Huston, one of the organizers leading FACT, told Fox News Digital that Humans First hosted weekly Zoom meetings for its organizers and sent out regular mass emails with directions and suggestions for them. She, like the other left-of-center organizers working with Humans First, also stressed the opposition to data centers should be a nonpartisan issue.
«[Sen. Josh Hawley] is making statements and saying we need to do something about [data centers]. So, I never thought I’d care about anything this man had to say. But he is in tune with what’s happening with AI … and that we need some better understanding about the effects of data centers,» Huston told Fox News Digital. «So, I’m with him on that. You know, so it doesn’t matter to me what political party you are, but the subject is what matters.»
Back north in Michigan, Humans First listed Mitchell Distin, a Democrat running for state House, as an organizer for a protest, but has since removed that demonstration from its webpage. Fox News Digital reviewed a prior version of the page listing Distin before the demonstration was removed.
«While you are correct in your assessment that I am, by no means, conservative, the data center issue isn’t a left-right issue,» Distin told Fox News Digital. «It’s an issue without precedent, as it transcends party boundaries. And for that reason alone, I believe it’s showing that every day, common Americans actually have far more in common than they realize. We actually agree on the futures we want, not the futures that Big Tech execs want for us.»
TOP ENERGY GROUP WARNS WEALTHY FOREIGNERS ARE POTENTIALLY BANKROLLING ANTI-DATA CENTER CAMPAIGNS ACROSS US
On what was recently farmland, Amazon data centers have been built as close as 50 feet from residential houses in the Loudoun Meadows neighborhood on January 20, 2023, in Aldie, VA. A Microsoft data center is under construction in at top right. As the data center industry expands its footprint in Northern Virginia, often building massive commercial structures near residential neighborhoods, communities push back with their concerns. (Photo by Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Not all the organizers who have signed up to facilitate Humans First’s nationwide protests are political liberals.
Cathy Latham, for example, is a longtime Georgia GOP official who is now working as a staffer with Humans First. She organized a July 18 protest in Waco, Texas. Latham was among the 18 defendants, including Trump, indicted in Georgia’s 2020 election-interference case.
Humans First claimed after July 18 that it had helped organize 142 protests across 42 states.
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Kremer, speaking to the Washington Examiner in May, expressed disgust with how AI companies have spent millions on lobbying and messaging campaigns to influence policy.
«I’m not for sale,» she told the Washington Examiner. «When I do something, I pour my whole heart and soul into it.»
big tech backlash, politics, artificial intelligence, technology, democratic party
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