Battling the Swarm: Oklahoma Guard Trains to Survive the Rapidly Evolving UAS Threat
The threat posed by Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), particularly massing drone swarms, is fundamentally changing military planning. With the innovation cycle for battlefield drones moving at an unprecedented pace of three to six weeks, traditional doctrines are quickly becoming outdated. To maintain readiness and survival, the Oklahoma National Guard is engaging in crucial, real-world experimentation.
Video by Spc. Cambrie Cannon and Sgt. Haden Tolbert
Oklahoma National Guard
- We cannot plan missions anymore without taking to account the UAS threat.
- And what we're seeing now, it's not just one or two platforms in the
- air,
- whether it be for reconnaissance or for attack.
- Now you're talking about swarms.
- You're talking about massing effects of drones.
- Drones kind of came onto the battlefield a couple of years ago, and right now the
- innovation cycle is about three to six weeks.
- It's changing faster than we can get stuff on paper, so experimentation like
- this is really important for us to kind of learn and get in the groove of
- dealing with this. It's crucial to their survival to be able
- to react and deal with
- this.
- My two main priorities for the brigade are survivability and lethality.
- This exercise is really focused on the survivability piece.
- Part of what this exercise is gonna do is it's gonna reveal our, our
- vulnerabilities. So as we're moving through an open area,
- as we move through the,
- through the woods, as we move in an urban environment,
- what are the effects
- that UAS has on what we do and how we've been doing things
- by doctrine, you know, since, since the beginning of the infantry.
- Thunderstruck is designed to look at what our vulnerabilities are,
- be innovative, and come up with solutions on how to deal
- with that UAS threat, and,
- and then come up with plans and TTPs for the future.
- Leaders at every level have full latitude to make decisions and come
- up with new ideas and test things out while we're out here.
- We're looking at how do we adapt to the current threat environment, and the
- soldiers down to the lowest level, that's probably where most of our
- ingenuity and
- innovation's gonna come from. They have wide reign to experiment, uh,
- and test
- out what does not work anymore and what do we need to change.
Watch Time
1 Mins 34 Secs