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Last Update: 08/01/2026 at 12:01 PM EST
Army Scales Low-Cost Combat Drones
Coverage from Aol, Business Insider, and others
Articles
24
Active Days
90
The Topic
The U.S. Army is expanding the use of inexpensive drones for reconnaissance, attack, breaching, electronic-warfare targeting, and counter-drone missions. Exercises with the 101st Airborne Division and other units emphasize mass, low cost, simple operation, rapid local production, and training through simulators and repeated live flights. The shift could give smaller units more persistent battlefield coverage while reducing exposure of soldiers, but it also creates demands for batteries, operators, logistics, realistic training conditions, and reliable defenses against enemy drones.
First Article: 04/27/26
Latest Article: 07/25/26
Summary
- The 101st Airborne Division used 228 attack drones in a Fort Polk rotation, with roughly 150 built by soldiers.
- Army leaders argue that combat units need inexpensive drones in large quantities rather than a small number of costly systems.
- Soldier-built drones support reconnaissance, attacks on bunkers and electronic-warfare systems, smoke delivery, and breaching operations.
- FPV drone courses use 20 to 30 hours of simulator training before live flight to reduce crashes and speed qualification.
- The Army is testing terminal guidance, automatic target recognition, and one-to-many control to reduce operator workload.
- Counter-drone training includes drone-on-drone interception, electronic jamming, acoustic detection, and operations in difficult weather and fatigue conditions.
- Local manufacturing and 3D printing are being used to produce affordable airframes, spare parts, and mission-specific components.
History
The story now emphasizes that the Army is not just experimenting with cheap drones, but actively building the training, manufacturing, and support systems needed to field them at scale. It also adds clearer evidence that counter-drone defense and sustainment burdens are becoming central constraints.
The story has shifted from general Army counter-drone experimentation to a more concrete scaling effort for low-cost offensive and defensive drones. The new material emphasizes soldier-built systems, mass production, simulator-based FPV training, and autonomy as the Army tries to make drones fieldable in large quantities.
Featured
04-27-2026
Soldiers at Fort Bragg trained on Bumblebee V1 and V2 to conduct drone-on-drone counter-UAS combat as the Pentagon’s interagency task force pursues lower-cost defenses.
06-26-2026
Ryan Bell, 3rd Mobile Brigade commander, said one-to-many swarm control and terminal guidance should reduce training while scaling drone inventories in US Army exercises at Fort Polk.
06-27-2026
US Army 3rd Mobile Brigade Combat Team tested drone- and robot-enabled breaching at Fort Polk, Louisiana, using 25 attack drones and C4 ground robots in April.
Timeline: 90 Days
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Additional Articles
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U.S. Army Armaments Center conducted April tests at Aberdeen Proving Ground to evaluate Gunslinger-based counter-drone fire control from a remotely operated weapon station while moving.
US Army demonstrated mid-spring counter-UAS engagements at Aberdeen Proving Ground using Gunslinger fire control and a remotely operated weapon station on a moving platform.
U.S. Army and Oregon National Guard engineers tested a Lorica Mule 28 drone carrying an M1A3 Bangalore torpedo through concertina wire at Orchard Combat Training Center in Idaho.
British Army Project AKSA is fielding 10,000 small drones in the UK within six months, integrating autonomy scaling with electronic warfare and counter-UAS capabilities.
U.S. Army and Oregon Army National Guard conducted a June 22, 2026 Idaho test of Mule 28 drone-delivered live M1A3 Bangalore torpedoes with wired initiation to reduce combat engineer exposure.
Oregon Army National Guard engineers demonstrated drone-delivered M1A3 Bangalore breaching on June 22, 2026, using a Lorica-built Mule 28 and shock-tube detonation.
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Project Flytrap in Lithuania trained US Army 2nd Cavalry Regiment soldiers in counter-drone tactics, including acoustic drone identification and electronic jamming against UK forces.
Col. Ryan Bell said 101st Airborne soldiers built about 150 of 228 attack drones used during April training at Fort Polk for ISR and electronic warfare targeting.
The US Army’s drone lethality course uses simulator-first training and goggles-based FPV instruction to prepare soldiers for live remote drone flying.
Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson trains 11th Airborne Division soldiers on Dronebuster counter-sUAS use, alongside NINJA system defenses, for installation airspace security.
XTEND tested XTEND SCORPIO 1000 autonomous strike systems with British paratroopers during Ex RHINO BIZZ at Suffield in Alberta under GNSS-denied and electronic-warfare conditions.
Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska increased counter-sUAS drone training and defense using USAF NINJA detect-and-defeat to detect, control, and trace hostile drones.
The XVIII Airborne Corps and Fort Bragg Joint Innovation Outpost led anti-drone training May 5-7, 2026 near Fort Bragg against high-speed FPV drones using standardized Army weapons.
U.S. Army V Corps tested Project Flytrap 5.0 counter-UAS systems during Saber Strike 26 in Lithuania from April 30 to May 19.
Virginia Army National Guard's 116th Mobile Brigade Combat Team used Teal Black Widow and counter-UAS systems during live-fire training at Fort Pickett and JRTC.
Anduril Industries systems, including Pulsar electronic warfare, were installed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord as JIATF-401 expands counter-UAS defenses in 2025.
The U.S. Army ran Project Flytrap in Lithuania, testing drone swarm tactics and counter-UAS defenses during a multinational exercise involving nearly 1,000 personnel.
U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Armaments Center tested SWAT-FC in April at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, demonstrating moving-on-moving drone defeat with CROWS.
Major Alex Aitken led British Army counter-drone training at Sennybridge Training Area in Wales, combining acoustic and RF detection, jamming, and Mossberg 590M shotgun marksmanship against FPV drones.
NATO's TIE26 counter-drone interoperability exercise in the Netherlands assessed how nations integrate command-and-control and sensors, including Airwayz OVERWATCH under SAPIENT certification.
The Air Force Point Defense Battle Lab, at Grand Forks AFB, issued Sam.gov RFIs to identify firms for deployable C-sUAS detection and kinetic effectors for August and December exercises.