The US Army is taking lessons from Ukraine’s drone war and pushing soldiers to design, build, and 3D print their own systems.
At the Army’s first annual Best Drone Warfighter competition held this week at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, the participating soldiers were encouraged not only to bring their own drone builds and modify them on-site but also to share tips and tricks across the service.
Army officials said this kind of innovation at the individual soldier level is essential to the Army’s adoption of uncrewed aerial systems.
The competitive event allowed the Army to learn more about the skill sets behind its best drone operators, including seeing “what kind of innovation, like grassroots soldier-level innovation is happening, that we can then take and scale across the Army,” Col. Nicholas Ryan, director of Army UAS Transformation at the Aviation Center of Excellence and lead of the drone competition, told reporters.
For other aspects of the competition, like the obstacle course, standard drones such as the Necros Archer and Skydio intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance drone were used in order to level the playing field for evaluating operators. But troops were encouraged to bring their own builds for other parts of the competition.
For those events, the regulations weren’t strict. “Whether you received it as an Army program of record, you bought it off the shelf from the blue list, or you built it yourself, you 3D printed it and built it yourself, bring whatever you have,” Ryan said, explaining that really the only rule was the drones had to fit in a rucksack.
The blue list refers to US government-approved drones that meet security and operational standards and contain either no or only a limited number of parts from companies in rival or adversarial countries like China and Iran.
At the competition’s practice lane, operators from across the Army tested and flew drones they had built or bought, creating what officials said were the event’s richest learning moments as soldiers swapped feedback and hard-earned lessons.
Troops were also 3D printing custom parts for their drone kits — from antenna-carrying gear to helmet mounts for first-person-view goggles — items not currently fielded by the Army.
Having soldiers make and modify their own drones at the competition was a takeaway from Ukraine, as the Army had observed how operators and industry partners there are 3D printing parts for drones and modifying them with specific features and parts depending on mission sets or countermeasures.
Using 3D printed parts for repairs is key as well, as the war in Ukraine has shown that adaptation and experimentation with equipment often happens quicker than traditional supply chains allow for.
Ukraine has shown other Western militaries the importance of 3D printing as well. The technology can shorten procurement timelines, build a variety of designs and pieces that may be highly specialized or difficult to get otherwise, and give soldiers more of a say in the systems they need.
Ryan said that while the Army had been constrained in doing this type of work, new guidance like US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s drone dominance memo signaled the importance of giving soldiers the right to repair their systems. “We need to allow our soldiers to fabricate and modify equipment that meets their needs and suits their needs,” he said.
The Army has been implementing 3D printing and drone building into its drone courses and across divisions as it recognizes that giving soldiers the ability to repair drones or make changes to them in real-time could be an important edge on a future battlefield.
Read the full article here
