Whether it’s developing Next-Generation Command and Control or the latest drones, the Army must seek soldier feedback and move quickly, two senior Army leaders said.

“This is all about the soldier,” said Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James Mingus. “This is ensuring that our troopers out there in the field have the right doctrine, the right organizational design, the right leaders, the right training, put together in the right way so, God forbid, we’re asked to fight and win, we can do that.”

During a fireside chat titled “From the Foxhole to the Factory–Achieving Total Battlefield Dominance” on Oct. 14 at the Association of the U.S. Army’s 2025 Annual Meeting and Exposition in Washington, D.C., Mingus and Army Undersecretary Michael Obadal talked about the importance of accelerating transformation to keep up with fast-moving technology. They also emphasized the importance of putting soldiers first.

Army transformation cannot just be about new equipment, Obadal said. It has to cover the DOTMLPF-P spectrum—doctrine, organization, training, materiel, leadership and education, personnel, facilities and policy.

This includes ensuring the organic industrial base—the Army’s 23 plants, arsenals and depots, which have been around since World War II—is modernized and capable of scaling up when needed, as well as transforming acquisition and business practices and bolstering the Army’s installations, Obadal said.

When it comes to soldiers, the Army is working to streamline the equipment they carry. “If you took an average soldier today, from head to toe, the weight that an average soldier carries is somewhere between 90 and 100 pounds, and that’s without a rucksack,” Mingus said. One goal of Next-Generation Command and Control, also known as Next-Gen C2, is to untether soldiers so they have access to all the data and information they need without being encumbered with bulky equipment.

The Army also is focused on soldiers’ health and wellness, he said. “We want them to be stronger, more lethal than their adversary,” Mingus said. “We want our kids to be as strong mentally as they can be. Our soldiers of the future are still going to have to be physically fit, tactically sound, masters of the basics.”

Being a soldier today is harder than it was when he enlisted decades ago, Mingus said. Troops today must be technically savvy and ready to adapt to new technology. “It’s not something new every 10 years, it’s something new every year,” he said.

As the Army continues to transform, there is no shortage of expertise needed from industry partners, Obadal said. In the past, the military would develop new technology that then proliferated into the commercial sector. The inverse is true now, he said.

“We can’t do this alone,” Mingus said. “Every day, we should get up and have a goal to make our Army a little bit better than it was yesterday. That is the essence of continuous transformation.”