The U.S. Army’s rapid response unit in Europe is working quickly to build out its own arsenal of small, agile first-person view drones. The 173rd Airborne Brigade recently opened its own drone lab so that soldiers can build, train with and stockpile the tiny aerial machines that are becoming a fixture of the modern battlefield.
The lab, set up at the 173rd’s base in Caserma Del Din, Italy, is operated by soldiers from the brigade and the 414th Contracting Support Brigade. In fact, it was set up to get soldiers the tiny devices quickly and without having to go through larger procurement systems. Col. Joshua Gaspard, the head of the 173rd Airborne Brigade, ordered the lab to be established so that each one is made in-house, quickly and cheaply. The Army noted that each one costs roughly $1,000 to construct.
“It’s a huge learning curve, but paratroopers are excited to be using these systems,” 1st Lt. Aiden Roberts said in an Army release on the lab. “They see videos of FPV drones in Ukraine all over Instagram and the news media.”
Roberts noted the various uses for these kinds of drones, including reconnaissance and direct attack, calling them “basically steerable mortars.” FPV drones work as the name suggests, with the drones sending a camera feed back to the operator, who can get a first-person view via a monitor or goggles.
The Army, like the rest of the U.S. military, is in a hurry to adapt to the proliferation of drones on the battlefield. While conflicts in the Middle East have seen U.S. forces working to shoot down uncrewed systems fired at ships or bases, the ongoing war in Ukraine has shown just how dangerous small, often commercially made drones can be. Beyond direct attacks, drones have been used as reconnaissance tools, spotters for artillery and as essentially tiny bombers, dropping small explosives on a target.
As a result of their expanding use on the battlefield, the U.S. Army is working on developing protocols for defending against and repelling drone swarms, as well as how to integrate them into small-unit tactics. Units are working on 3D printing new drones and creating modular systems for quick interchangeable parts for specific missions. A memo from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth released in late April called for drones to be utilized by every Army division by 2026 and for counter-UAS measures to be added to maneuver platoons that same year. Most recently, Army Sec. Dan Driscoll noted in conversation with War on the Rocks that the danger of drones on the battlefield limits how far forward armor elements like tanks can be deployed.
Images shared by the 173rd Airborne Brigade shows the lab workbenches full of pieces for small quadcopters, with motors, electrical pieces and plenty of wire and tools. The Army noted that the frames are printed in-house, with soldiers essentially building the drones from scratch, adding the various wires and pieces needed to get them able to fly.
Additionally, soldiers are going through a 15-day course on how to operate the drones they build. The drones were recently used in a live-fire training exercise.
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