Senator Susan Collins, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, criticized the Army’s decision to cancel its Robotic Combat Vehicle (RCV) program during a committee hearing on the Army’s fiscal year 2026 budget request. Collins addressed her concerns directly to Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll, urging him to reconsider the move.
Collins described the RCV program as an example of necessary innovation for the Defense Department and called its cancellation “terribly unfair and a real mistake.” She noted that Textron’s Ripsaw robotic vehicle had recently been selected for the program and would have been produced by Howe & Howe Technologies in Maine. Collins praised Howe & Howe as “an innovative, brilliant firm, the kind of company that we need more of in our industrial base.”
In response, Driscoll explained that rising costs were a key factor in ending the program. He said additional requirements added by the Army made it too expensive and slow-moving. Driscoll contrasted this with inexpensive drones capable of disabling costly military equipment: “an $800 drone with a very cheap munition can take out a $3 million piece of equipment endlessly.” He argued that such cost disparities are unsustainable.
Driscoll also pointed to alternatives from software companies like Applied Intuition, which can make existing vehicles autonomous quickly and at lower cost. “And that’s the type of cost curve we can afford,” he said. “For the vast majority of things we need to purchase today—to counterbalance all of the exquisite things we’ve purchased in the past—we have got to be buying cheap, attributable, scalable solutions. And unfortunately for the RCV, it’s just not one.”
Collins responded with several points. She mentioned that Textron’s Ripsaw RCV was showcased during the Army’s 250th birthday parade in Washington, D.C., attended by President Trump. Collins remarked: “It’s the height of irony that you would feature this combat vehicle in your parade as the future of the Army at the same time that you’ve canceled the contract, the cancellation of a contract that was won over a lot of other competitors.”
She further highlighted that the RCV includes counter-drone technology for self-defense against drone threats and emphasized its autonomous nature: “You’re not going to lose a soldier’s life if it’s taken out.”
The discussion reflects ongoing debates about balancing innovation with affordability within military procurement programs.
