- The US is canceling its M-10 Booker program, citing design flaws and redundancies.
- The light assault vehicle was deemed too heavy for its intended use.
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth plans to shift US focus to advanced drone capabilities.
The US Army is canceling its M-10 Booker light assault vehicle program as part of efforts to focus on advanced weaponry like drones.
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll confirmed the move, calling the assault vehicle approved under the previous administration "a mistake," and citing issues with its 42-ton weight and design.
"What came out of our procurement system wasn't good," he told reporters on Thursday, adding that the Army would learn from what had happened.
Driscoll said it was too heavy for many of its intended missions, including operations like airdrops from US Air Force transport aircraft.
The M-10 Booker, designed by General Dynamics Land Systems, is technically classified as an infantry support vehicle or "assault gun," rather than a traditional light tank.
Development on it began in 2022, after General Dynamics was awarded a $1.14 billion contract. The Army originally planned to acquire over 500 M-10s, and initial deliveries took place in February 2024.
It was the US Army's first new major armored vehicle in two decades, with the Army saying that it would allow "light maneuver forces to overmatch adversaries."
Although initially conceptualized as relatively lightweight and air-droppable, its design evolution resulted in a vehicle too heavy to operate as intended. An issue realized only after it was too late, Defense One reported in late April.
"This is not a story of acquisition gone awry," Alex Miller, the Army's chief technology officer, told the outlet. "This is a story of the requirements process creating so much inertia that the Army couldn't get out of its own way, and it just kept rolling and rolling and rolling."
The cancellation of the M-10 Booker program is part of a wider restructure ordered by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
In an official memo released on Thursday, Hegseth called for a strategic move away from many longstanding assets like Humvees and helicopters toward areas like advanced drone capabilities.
As part of this, Hegseth said that every division of the US Army should be equipped with drones by the end of 2026.
He called for crewed attack helicopter formations to be restructured and augmented with "inexpensive drone swarms capable of overwhelming adversaries."
The memo instructed Army leadership to aggressively reassess inventory, terminate funding for "obsolete systems," and cancel or reduce programs deemed "ineffective or redundant."
Beyond the M-10, areas targeted for cuts include some crewed aircraft, ground vehicles, and older generations of unmanned aerial vehicles.
