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Army to Shut Down Europe Drone Unit 08/21 06:27
WASHINGTON (AP) -- An Army unit based in Europe that was specializing in
drone warfare has been directed to end its efforts to learn and use the
battlefield technology and return to being a traditional infantry battalion,
officials said Thursday.
For more nearly a year, soldiers of the 173rd Airborne Brigade have been
experimenting and building their own drones, as well as participating in drills
on waging unmanned warfare after Ukraine pioneered such tactics in its
yearslong conflict with Russia. Last November, 600 soldiers formed a battalion
that specialized in drone warfare and was set up to be used as a dedicated unit
that could deploy anywhere drones were required.
Gen. Christopher LaNeve, the Army's acting chief of staff, has ordered the
battalion to refocus on its core mission of being an airborne infantry unit,
according to two U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss
internal Army deliberations. The Wall Street Journal earlier reported the
change.
The move comes amid a broader reshuffling of the Army under LaNeve, who has
been its top uniformed leader since Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth suddenly
ousted Gen. Randy George in April.
The decision also comes despite the Iran war showing the need for the U.S.
to learn lessons about drone warfare from Ukraine. Iran has deployed its
low-cost Shahed drones against ships and bases, killing U.S. troops, downing an
Army helicopter and forcing the military to expend precious supplies of
advanced interceptors.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in March that Ukrainian
officials were helping five countries in the Middle East and Gulf region
counter Iranian drone attacks, while the United States and European countries
were among others that had requested support.
Drone unit had expected to continue its work before Army leader's ousting
The overall 173rd Airborne Brigade, which is based in Italy and Germany, has
been involved in drone warfare even before last November.
In May 2025, the Army highlighted that soldiers from the brigade were
designing and building their own attack drones in a new "first-person view
(FPV) drone lab" at Caserma Del Din, Italy.
Its commander at the time, Col. Joshua Gaspard, said in an Army media post
that his soldiers "see videos of FPV drones in Ukraine all over Instagram and
the news media" and they were "excited to be using these systems."
The unit also dabbled in artificial intelligence, which Hegseth has been
pushing, and designing drones resistant to jamming.
An Army statement said the specialized drone unit will wrap up its
experimentation following two major exercises in Germany this month and next,
then "deliver what it learned there, together with the past year's findings, to
the Army to inform force design and future experimentation."
A third official, who, like the others, spoke on condition of anonymity to
detail internal moves, noted the expectation was always that the exercises
would be a "culminating event" for the drone battalion and that its future
would then be reevaluated. During George's tenure, most expected the unit to
continue its work in drone warfare, the official said.
"The unit was tasked to study and absorb lessons from dedicated unmanned
systems forces, including those developed by the Ukrainian armed forces, and to
provide that feedback to the Army in support of the Department's direction to
accelerate U.S. military drone dominance," the Army said in a statement.
The Army had previously prioritized efforts to use drones
Integrating drones into the Army's tactics was a major focus for LaNeve's
predecessor. George, alongside Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, last year rolled
out what they called the Army Transformation Initiative, which pushed to add
"modernized (unmanned aircraft systems) into formations."
George, who became Army chief of staff under President Joe Biden, regularly
spoke about the need to accelerate development of new drone systems and get
them in the hands of regular soldiers, not just specialized units.
After George was ousted without explanation in April, LaNeve took his place.
He was George's deputy and an officer whose career has seen a meteoric rise
under Hegseth.
LaNeve was commanding the U.S. Eighth Army in South Korea when he called in
to the Commander in Chief Ball during President Donald Trump's inauguration in
January 2025 and welcomed him back to office.
In March 2025, LaNeve was transferred to the Pentagon, where he became
Hegseth's top military adviser. Trump then nominated LaNeve to be the Army's
vice chief of staff last October.
In a guiding memo for the Army published Wednesday, LaNeve argued that "the
next war will not look like our last" and that soldiers need to "learn,
innovate, and adapt faster by pairing our human ingenuity and judgment with
advanced technologies like autonomy and artificial intelligence."
However, the memo does not mention drones and closes by arguing that "there
are timeless truths in war."
"This is the Army we must be: disciplined, lethal, and relentless -- an Army
that closes with and destroys the enemy, leaving no doubt about the will and
power of the United States," the document says.
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