82nd Airborne soldiers train on drone-countering maneuvers used in Ukraine
Soldiers are training for drone-on-drone combat using Bumblebee drones, which have been used in Ukraine and are being sent to U.S. training centers in the Middle East.
Fayetteville, North Carolina — Three small drones whizzed overhead, piloted by soldiers on laptops. Two of the Bumblebee drones were being steered to collide with the third, as part of the soldiers' initial training for the kind of drone-on-drone combat that's been taking place for months on the battlefield in Ukraine .
The training was held at Fort Bragg last week for a small group of soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division in tandem with the Pentagon's efforts to produce cheap counter-drone systems that can quickly and easily be put to use by service members.
The soldiers trained on both the Bumblebee V1, a small, first-person-view drone that has seen thousands of combat flights in Ukraine, and the newer Bumblebee V2, which has automatic target recognition specifically meant to counter other drones and which has not been deployed yet.
Most of the training was on the Bumblebee V1, which is already being used by other soldiers in the 82nd Airborne Division and in the 10th Mountain Division, according to Sgt. Maj. Kellen Rowley, who is the senior enlisted adviser for the Pentagon's interagency counter-drone task force.
Rowley said training for the V1 is taking place at several domestic bases, as well as at a training center for U.S. Central Command in the Middle East. As more service members flow into the Middle East, they will also be able to start doing the same kind of initial training on these systems.
"They pick up the skills necessary to do drone-on-drone combat," Rowley said of the training. "The feedback that we've heard thus far is 'I'm not gonna learn it in five minutes, but if I have 40 hours dedicated to learn how to figure this out,' they're gonna be an effective operator."