FORT INDIANTOWN GAP, Pa. – Uncrewed aircraft systems, or drones, are becoming a bigger and bigger part of the modern battlefield, as seen in Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Instructors at the 166th Regiment – Regional Training Institute have been training Soldiers to use drones for surveillance and reconnaissance purposes using fixed-wing drones for nearly a decade.
Soon, they will begin training Soldiers to call for artillery fire using smaller, more modern quad-copter drones.
During a recent exercise, instructors from the regiment’s 1st Battalion used quad-copter drones to gather target information and send it to students taking the artillery Advanced Leader Course under the guidance of instructors from 2nd Battalion. The students then engaged the targets with M119, M777 and M109A6 howitzers.
“We are using drones to locate targets to call for artillery fire and also to observe the fall of those rounds, make the required adjustments, and to conduct a battle damage assessment,” said Sgt. 1st Class Richard Hutnik, quality assurance noncommissioned officer for 1st Battalion who was piloting a drone during the exercise.
Hutnik said the RTI has been using fixed-wing drones for several years and has switched to quad-copter drones in the past year.
“We’ve been seeing it through open-source intelligence, obviously in the conflict that’s going on in Ukraine, that they’ve been doing a lot of these things, so we’re adjusting with the times, and we’re developing procedures and efficiencies in order to conduct these tasks,” Hutnik said.
The Army’s Maneuver Center of Excellence, which oversees 1st Battalion’s training, has issued guidance that the RTI should be incorporating small UAS training into all levels of professional military education, Hutnik said.
In addition to the call-for-fire aspect, 1st Battalion incorporated small UASs for the first time during its most recent infantry Advanced Leader Course field training exercise earlier in November, Hutnik said.
“We’re using what we have right now to develop these procedures and to familiarize ourselves with what we need to know and how to perform these tasks adequately,” Hutnik said.
Master Sgt. Matthew Schreckengost, chief instructor with the regiment’s 2nd Battalion, said drones extend the vision of the forward observer and provide a platform Soldiers on the ground can use to reduce their risk.
“The observers no longer have to have direct line of sight of the enemy,” Schreckengost said. “They can be under cover and concealment while the drone itself is exposed to all the risk associated with observing an enemy target.”
Schreckengost noted that other units have used a variety of drones to call for artillery fire, such as the RQ-7 Shadow, a larger, fixed-wing UAS.
“However, this is the first time the 166th Regiment has done training like this where we’ve used data collected from a drone to create a call for fire,” Schreckengost said. “Our desired outcome is for call for fire with sUAS to eventually be a part of all 13F forward observer, or fire support specialist, curriculum, as well as for 19D cavalry scout training.”
Capt. Richard Mast, 2nd Battalion’s fire direction officer, said drones are another tool for forward observers to gather target information. Using drones doesn’t change anything for the fire direction center or gun crew members, he said.
After the fire mission, a UAS can also conduct a battle damage assessment, Mast said.
“If a forward observer identifies an enemy target directly but then comes into enemy contact and needs to relocate, losing visual contact of the target, he or she could launch a sUAS for uninterrupted observation of that target,” Mast said.
Sgt. 1st Class Mark Thompson, course manager for the RTI’s infantry Advance Leader Course, said Soldiers training at the RTI could be leaders during future conflicts, so it’s important they are trained on the most up-to-date technologies, particularly drones.
“If we don’t get on the front edge of it, we will be behind it,” Thompson said. “All of our mission statements here at the Regiment are to train adaptive leaders ready for the next large-scale combat operations.
“SUAS on a reconnaissance platform, on a kinetic direct engagement platform, in the implementation of calling for fire with artillery — we don’t want our students having to use it for the first time when they’re engaged in direct conflict,” Thompson added. “We want to provide the training now so they can use it proficiently on the battlefield.”
(Sgt. 1st Class Shane Smith of the 166th Regiment – Regional Training Institute contributed to this story.)