Inside the U.S. Military’s New Drone Warfare School | WSJ

(dramatic music)
(gun blasting) – [Narrator] The US Military
has launched a new school to train American Armed Forces in how to counter the
emerging threat of drones or what it calls Unmanned
Aircraft Systems or UAS. The first academy of its kind, The Joint Counter Small Unmanned
Aircraft Systems University or JCU will train about
1,000 troops a year. – Warfare is changing very fast. This threat right here, this current threat with respect to UAS, it's the pace of your phone changing. (drone clicking)
(dramatic music) (drone buzzing) – [Narrator] This footage is
from a Ukrainian drone attack carried out against Russian forces, and this video is from a
Hamas drone attack in November carried out against
Israeli forces in Gaza. The proliferation of small, cheap, commercially available drones is transforming modern warfare and this has not been
lost on the Pentagon. (gun clicking)
(gun blasting) Colonel Moseph Sauda is
the director of the JCU. – The pace of the need is
outgrowing capacity right now, so we're trying to train
as many people as possible and trying to grow as fast
as possible to fit that need.

– [Narrator] Today, students at Fort Sill are training on weapons systems to counter small unmanned aircraft.
(gun blasting) – Alright, so what we
have in front of us here is what's known as the Smart Shooter, what the name implies is what it does. Alright, so the Smart Shooter
itself is a smart optic that is placed onto the M4 weapon system to allow the soldier a better opportunity to engage small UAS threats
that are very close. (dramatic music)
(gun blasting) – [Narrator] Smartshooter
training does involve drones, but students don't shoot directly at them. (gun blasting) Instead, they shoot at balloons dangling below the drones on a string. The JCU said, "Balloons
are more cost effective, and thinks the high winds in Oklahoma are a harder target to hit. (gun blasting)
– [Instructor] Nice. – So the soldier would place the weapon into operation the way they
do for any other situation. From that point there, you
would look through the optic, which would acquire the target for you, in which case the soldier
would pull the trigger and the rest of is done
by the weapon system.

(gun blasting)
– [Instructor] Nice. – [Narrator] The students
are also learning how to use another handheld
system, the Dronebuster. – Whereas the Smart Shooter
utilizes the 556 round, this is known as an
electronic attack system, so a soldier's taking this here and they're pointed in a general direction of the target that they see. And then a soldier placed in an operation utilize various jamming means
to interdict that target. – [Narrator] The JCU says,
"These weapons systems and others like them are already in the hands of
US forces around the world." – It's not just the Air Force anymore that is using unmanned
aerial vehicles or drones, it is also ground forces, and every echelon have
different types of drones that provide them with intelligence, surveillance,
and reconnaissance, as well as targeting, and
sometimes strike capabilities.

– [Narrator] Before the JCU was created, soldiers who trained on
anti-drone weapon systems did so within their own branches. – The Joint Counter UAS University, the intent here is to standardize and centralize the training so that we can all have interoperability as we work together and
integrate the system successfully with respect to the threat – [Narrator] Training typically lasts between one to three weeks. Students are selected by their commanders, but some volunteer to attend. – As far as branches of
Military coming through the JCU, we are seeing service
members from all branches. We also train federal agencies as well as allied and partner nations. – [Narrator] In the years following the September 11th attacks, the US deployed large,
sophisticated, expensive drones for surveillance and strikes
in Iraq and Afghanistan. The first time commercial drones were used in a conflict was in Iraq.

When ISIS deployed the technology
in the battle for Mosul, – ISIS began to modify small quadcopters and use them to attack
Iraqi and US forces. And this presented an
unprecedented challenge. – [Narrator] In recent years, civilian drones modified with explosives have become a growing menace for troops in Syria, Gaza, and Ukraine. – Drones are fundamentally
changing the way that militaries fight. They are allowing different
states to perform missions that previously were too expensive. Having an Air Force on
the cheap, for example. – [Narrator] Many of the small drones being used in combat today in Ukraine come from one Chinese company, DGI.

DGI drones aren't made to fire weapons, but they can be easily modified to carry a grenade or
other small explosive. Last year, DGI said, "It would stop selling its
drones to Ukraine and Russia because the technology was
not intended to be used for military activities – In Ukraine, you've
seen just an explosion of commercial and do-it-yourself drones on a level that has
never been seen before. Both parties are employing
them at all echelons. The Ukrainians were the first movers here and you've seen them move
into first-person view drones, these small, fast quadcopters
that are essentially kamikazes and crash into their target. – [Narrator] Students at Fort Sill are also training for an
emerging threat, drone swarms, the term refers to a network of multiple unmanned
aerial flying platforms integrated together by a single system.

– We have the ability to
replicate drone swarms here, and this is very important because as a student, you'll have a realistic appraisal of the difficulties that these
different platforms present, but also you'll have an
understanding of the capabilities of what you're utilizing
to neutralize that threat. – [Narrator] Given how rapidly drone technology is developing, the Pentagon believes there's no single weapon
system that can be relied upon. – You're really in a cost competition because so many of the
drones are very cheap today, that you don't wanna be firing something that is much more expensive to intercept and destroy them. – There is no silver bullet when it comes to counter UAS. So there is no one system
that is most effective. Commanders have to determine, based off of planning factors, which system is best to be
utilized against the threat. And so what we want to do is make sure we use a layered approach, using multiple systems planning against that in
different environments, don't look for one way out.

You want to create multiple dilemmas, which then makes it difficult
for the adversary to develop means to defeat what
you're putting together. (dramatic music)
(drone buzzing).

As found on YouTube

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