“I share your concerns with modernization. I share the concerns of many in Congress about the loss of the organic industrial base. Current events have made one thing clear: the commercial industrial base alone cannot meet our munitions demands. That’s why Congress has advocated for investing in Army-owned, organic industrial base facilities,” Boozman said.

“It is – there are probably a couple of threats if we don’t figure out how to get scalable solutions together, we are going to put our Army in a bad position and that is absolutely one of them. I would be honored to work with you,” Driscoll stated.

Boozman, along with Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Rep. Bruce Westerman (AR-04), has pushed back on the Army’s intentions to potentially downsize the Pine Bluff Arsenal rather than expand its operations to help meet munitions needs. The lawmakers subsequently called for detailed plans for the future of the Arsenal as a critical element of the defense industrial base.

As a senior Appropriations Committee member, Boozman also questioned the effect temporary funding and authorities – in the form or continuing resolutions – has on military missions and commitments.

“We wouldn’t be able to make some of the changes because it would be based on previous years. That would obviously be a detriment to us in the Army. We know the battlefield is constantly changing,” George responded.

“Predictable funding is a virtuous concept that helps us in a lot of different ways. When we continue to have CRs, it makes our spending decisions and the downstream effect on our suppliers even more amplified,” Driscoll continued.

The senator concluded by pressing for details on the Army’s plan to integrate and field mass small drone technology in light of recent drone attacks abroad, including Ukraine’s Operation Spider’s Web that successfully targeted Russia’s air fleet.

“We need to produce – we’re producing very few drones stateside. We need to have [that] here in our organic industrial base. That’s certainly one area where there’s an intersection where we need to improve on,” George explained.

Boozman previously discussed the threat of drone attacks on U.S. domestic military installations and assets with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine.