U.S. Army Scouts Learn To Fight Alongside A Sky Full Of Drones

[Irag8er]

U.S. Army scouts learn to fight alongside a sky full of drones

Two cavalry scouts sat inside a brand-new armored vehicle atop a hill at Fort Hood, Texas, watching a sky full of drones do reconnaissance work that used to take an hour and now takes minutes, according to a report by

defence-blog.com

 

[william]

The Marines are racing to deploy thousands of attack drones​

The U.S. Marine Corps, and the U.S. military more broadly, is rushing to field these so-called “first-person view” drones, which have been used with devastating effect in the war in Ukraine. It is part of the large-scale effort by the U.S. military to ultimately acquire millions of drones and train units to use them.

But whether U.S. manufacturers can build enough of them, and the military can teach enough troops to operate them in large numbers, are still open questions.

Though the Marines have moved quickly, “they’re at the very start,” said Kelly Grieco, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center in Washington, who studies U.S. military strategy. “This isn’t a capability they can currently field at scale yet.”

The training exercise in Australia, which didn’t involve actual munitions on the FPV drones, offers a window into how the Marines plan to use them in the field—and how they can be an important tool for front-line units.

One challenge has been finding drones that aren’t made with Chinese components, though U.S.-made options are now emerging.

The drone used at the training exercise, the Neros Archer, has become one favorite. The Army just signed a contract worth up to $500 million with Neros. The company also won a multimillion-dollar contract with the Marines last year, and it says it has additional orders with the Marines beyond that. Archers are sold starting at $2,000 and go up to around $5,000, depending on the equipment.

The latest version of the Archer comes in multiple sizes, with a smaller drone designed more for close-quarters and urban combat, and larger ones for longer-range strike. Neros says it is currently making 1,400 Archers a week and aims to produce one million drones annually out of its facility in Torrance, Calif., by 2028.

The Marines clearly want more drones. Around the end of last year, the service put out a notice saying it wanted 10,000 FPV-capable small drones in the next 12 months, with the ability to carry mortar bombs or grenades.

MSN