Two US Army 4th Infantry Division soldiers sat on the barren desert earth at Fort Irwin, California. One wore first-person-view goggles and held a drone controller. The other watched the drone’s feed on a laptop.
After a few moments of setup, the Neros Archer lifted off, the buzz loud up close and still audible at a distance. The small aircraft made a short flight before returning to the launch point and circling overhead. Then, hovering about a foot above the ground, the operator cut the power. The drone dropped silently.
The demonstration only lasted a few minutes, but it offered a glimpse into a much larger Army experiment with drones. As part of the service’s massive transformation initiative, the Army is working to flood the force with small uncrewed aerial systems to prepare soldiers for future wars
Throughout the exercise, soldiers described learning, often through trial and error, what it actually takes to use drones in the field, including when to launch them, how to keep them flying in punishing conditions, what equipment to carry, and how operating them fits alongside troops’ existing jobs.
Drones are bringing new capabilities to the fight
In the desert, Business Insider observed soldiers using a mix of drone technology in demonstrations and simulated combat, including the Archer first-person-view drone, Anduril’s Bolt-M, Teledyne FLIR Defense’s Rogue I, and Teal Drones’ Black Widow. Some soldiers had multiple systems at their disposal and were weighing the pros and cons of each.
The consensus on the positives during the experimentation exercise was that drones could help soldiers spot enemy vehicles or positions and decide how to respond.
“Now my capabilities are just exponentially increasing. I can see further. I can continuously see,” Capt. Dominic Sparkling, a unit commander within the 4th ID, said.
Many warfighting lessons can be learned from Ukraine, where both Moscow and Kyiv’s forces have used drones as intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance tools to extend what they can see on the field of battle, as well as attack options for striking enemy targets. Some drones are one-way attack systems, while others used in the war drop munitions rather than detonating on target, making the systems reusable for future missions.
Some of the uncrewed systems at Fort Irwin featured interchangeable payloads that could be used to see, sense, and, if needed, strike an enemy with an explosive or fragmentation round.
Depending on the situation, certain payloads could either be launched from the drone or require the drone itself to be expended in the attack. Cpl. Emiliano Lopez, one of the Rogue I operators, said using drones meant soldiers didn’t have to dismount as often because they can use them to extend their sight and reach.
The two soldiers operating the Archer told Business Insider that they had recently completed the monthlong training course for that particular drone and had logged flight time in another class.
“Just being able to go out to the field and test these, we’ve seen the worst scenarios of these things, and we’ve seen the best,” Specialist Christopher Frank, who was flying the drone, said, citing problems like loss of connection and physical damage.
The soldier watching the Archer’s feed on the laptop, called the spotter, served as a second pair of eyes and a guide for the pilot. Sgt. Gabe Tedro assisted Frank and retrieved the drone when it was powered down. Frank and Tedro were the only two scouts in their platoon qualified to use the Archer, though more troops were preparing for future drone courses.
During simulated combat, soldiers using drones often set up on a mountain at their observation post. They’d position a tripod to relay the drone’s signal and keep their equipment plugged in and ready in case they got a call from their commander to launch a drone.
Then, “all it takes is just putting a battery on and tightening the nuts on the rotors, and then we’re sending it,” Frank said.
Beyond UAVs, the Army was also testing uncrewed ground vehicles. Soldiers had used one, the NOMAD, more than a dozen times for logistics and resupply missions. Sgt. 1st Class Alex Alcantar called it “extremely useful,” saying it reduced the risk to troops on dangerous runs.
Punishing conditions reveal challenges
As troops experimented with the systems in the Mojave Desert, they also ran into challenges and unknowns.
Operators told Business Insider that they weren’t pushing their drones in the hot weather, avoiding further distances or long flight times in order to prevent overheating.
“The heat’s been a very big thing when it comes to this drone in particular,” Sgt. Ramontez Bennett said, describing the Bolt-M. Bennett said the temperature limited how long he could fly the drone and prompted him to keep it moving rather than hover in the air, because “the longer you keep it around in the air, it’s gonna overheat.”
The heat caused problems ranging from overheating hardware to reduced battery life. Soldiers improvised some solutions to cool other technology involved in operating the systems, Army leaders told reporters after the exercise. In one example, troops covered an antenna with a T-shirt soaked in ice water.
None of the drones that Business Insider saw were connected to Next Generation Command and Control, or NGC2, the Army’s new prototype warfighting system, which officials have said is intended to connect drones and weapons across the network.
Army leaders said many of the drones weren’t connected because vendors were still working toward interoperability requirements with NGC2. In some cases, the drones in use were not yet formal Army programs.
In other situations, troops were navigating connectivity problems caused by simulated enemy jamming, desert ridges, and heavy winds. Frank and others said that connection issues, such as static blurring the drone’s camera feed, can come from a range of factors like frequency problems, weather conditions, location, and geography.
Like many drones, the Archer and Rogue I have a “return to home” function should they lose connection with their operators.
But other systems, like the NOMAD ground robot, didn’t have that fallback option. Instead, it stopped where it was when it lost connection and required a soldier to go out and retrieve it. The rocky terrain also reduced the NOMAD’s range, cutting it in half as the vehicle traveled over ridges.
Another challenge was deciding what to carry into the field. Concerns about the added weight and gear came up repeatedly, and soldiers said the trade-offs depended on time, capability, and conditions. If troops needed to move quickly and quietly, that could limit their loadout.
“That’s the trade-off,” Lt. Col. Shawn Scott, a unit commander within the 4th ID, said. “That’s the balance, and it’s always going to be hard to find.”
Frank and Tedro said that at one point, they had received an order to ready their drone while riding in the back of a Bradley infantry fighting vehicle. Setting it all up inside the vehicle was risky because a bumpy ride can damage some parts of the system.
They said they’d learned tricks in the field, like leaving the drone case behind when they went up to the observation post because it added unnecessary weight, and carrying only a few batteries while keeping the rest in the Bradley.
Those small adjustments were part of a larger process of figuring out just how drones fit into the way soldiers actually fight. Army leaders said soldier feedback from the exercise was critical for assessing how systems performed. Vendors weren’t present in the field with soldiers, but some troops said they’d received cheat sheets from companies to reference if they ran into problems.
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