Acting army secretary announces ‘manufacturing rodeo’ to tackle ‘weak links’ in supply chain

Acting Secretary of the Army Adam Telle speaks during the Opening Ceremony of the 2026 Association of the United States Army. (U.S. Army photo by Christopher Kaufmann)

WASHINGTON — Acting Army Secretary Adam Telle today announced the service will hold an event aimed at finding weak spots in the service’s supply chain, which the service is calling a “manufacturing rodeo.”

“We need to make the things we need here in America, and to keep making them when demand surges. That’s why I’m announcing today that the US Army is going to do something we’ve never done before,” Telle said today at the annual AUSA conference, marking his largest address to soldiers and industry since taking on the acting secretary role.

“Early next year, we will conduct what I’m calling a manufacturing rodeo, a race between our industrial base partners.”

Telle did not divulge many details about the upcoming event, but said since the Army has invested “a lot in our organic industrial base ,” the service will now hold a competition of sorts between industry where they will “strain” and “stress test” the supply chain to “see where it breaks.”

“The magic is that this is an early indicator that we’re acquiring a new system of seamless, frictionless symbiosis between the Army and American commercial excellence,” Telle said. “We built those muscles in World War II, but we haven’t flexed them since the Cold War, and as I said, the script has flipped. Take a basic attack drone. We need to be able to make millions of these. It may look simple, but it’s a flying supply chain we don’t control enough of.”

Though Telle said the Army is focused on modernization efforts such as bolstering its supply chain, he also wants to put an increased emphasis on getting “back to the basics.”

“I’m going to take it back to the basics, back to the dirt that lies beneath that foundation, because government agencies are in such a race trying to one up each other on the path to technocratic superiority that we often blow right past the fundamentals,” Telle said. “We’re so eager to talk about how we’re playing with the shiniest, newest, most headline-worthy gadgets that we forget what we were trying to do in the first place.”

Getting back to the basics includes focusing on “controlling and securing land,” Telle said.

“[C]ontrolling land is fundamental to humanity. The Army does it better than anyone, and it’s on us, the people in this room, to keep it that way. Humanity’s connection to the land is biblical, and it even transcends faith.”

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美国陆军代理部长亚当·特勒在2026年美国陆军协会开幕式上发表讲话。（美国陆军摄影师克里斯托弗·考夫曼摄）

华盛顿——陆军代理部长亚当·特勒今天宣布，陆军将举办一场旨在找出其供应链薄弱环节的活动，陆军称之为“制造业竞技会”。

“我们需要在美国本土生产我们需要的物品，并在需求激增时继续生产。这就是为什么我今天宣布，美国陆军将要做一件我们以前从未做过的事情，”特勒今天在美国陆军协会年会上说道。这是他担任代理部长以来，向士兵和业界发表的最大规模讲话。

“明年年初，我们将开展一场我称之为‘制造业竞技赛’的活动，一场我们工业基地合作伙伴之间的竞赛。”

特勒没有透露即将举行的活动的太多细节，但他表示，由于陆军“对我们的本土工业基础投入了大量资金”，现在陆军将与各行业进行某种形式的竞争，以“考验”和“压力测试”供应链，“看看它会在哪里崩溃”。

“神奇之处在于，这预示着我们正在建立一种全新的、无缝衔接的陆军与美国商业精英之间的共生体系，”特勒说道。“我们在二战期间培养了这种能力，但自冷战以来我们就一直没有充分发挥这种能力，正如我所说，情况已经完全不同了。以基础攻击无人机为例。我们需要能够生产数百万架。它看起来可能很简单，但这却是一条我们尚未完全掌控的空中供应链。”

特勒表示，陆军虽然专注于现代化工作，例如加强供应链，但他同时也希望更加重视“回归基本”。

“我要回归本源，回归到最根本的东西，因为政府机构竞相在技术官僚统治的道路上超越彼此，以至于我们常常忽略了基本要素，”特勒说。“我们太热衷于谈论如何使用最炫酷、最新、最能吸引眼球的设备，以至于忘记了我们最初的目标是什么。”

特勒说，回归基本原则包括专注于“控制和保障土地”。

“控制土地对人类至关重要。军队在这方面做得比任何人都好，而我们，在座的各位，有责任保持这种优势。人类与土地的联系源于圣经，甚至超越了信仰。”

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