But instead of a service member resting a finger on the trigger well in preparation for the next shot, in video footage of the Bullfrog weapons system, a hulking, metal machine tilts the weapon just slightly, refocusing itself.

As the U.S. contends with steep expenses to counter cheap drones, Allen Control Systems, or ACS, announced Monday that the Marine Corps has chosen the Bullfrog autonomous weapon system to integrate into its airborne defenses.

The futuristic apparatus is an AI-enabled weapon system that detects, tracks and then automatically aims firearms against aerial threats like drones. That Marine Corps selected the system under its Ground Based Air Defense, or GBAD, program, which develops and fields capabilities to protect forces from airborne attacks.

The service plans to incorporate the Bullfrog into its Light Marine Air Defense Integrated System (L-MADIS), a counter-unmanned aircraft system mounted on two vehicles that relies heavily on electronic warfare.

The system is already in use in the Army and Navy and has been approved by Joint Interagency Task Force 401, the Pentagon’s unit established to streamline the acquisition of counter-drone technology.

The Defense Department’s focus on countering drones comes as conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East have underscored the increasingly important role of cheap drones on the modern battlefield. The Pentagon has placed a growing emphasis on developing and fielding counter-drone technology that is more scalable and less pricey.

Their prevalence has exposed the economic imbalance of U.S. air defense, as small, relatively inexpensive drones have forced the country to expend expensive interceptor missiles that can cost millions of dollars to make.

The challenge has become especially pronounced during the U.S. war with Iran, where American forces have relied heavily on costly defenses to counter Iran’s Shahed drones, which can cost around $35,000 compared to around $4 million for some interceptors. Experts have warned that the cost of a prolonged war may drastically deplete U.S. interceptor stores.

An ACS press release on the Marine Corps deal linked to the Bullfrog M240, which is compatible with the U.S. military’s belt-fed, fully automatic M240 machine gun. According to the company, the M240 system has a maximum effective range of nearly half a mile and can attack medium and large drones weighing up to 1,320 pounds. Without ammunition, the system weighs 300 pounds.

According to the company, which also has variants that support the M2 machine gun and M320 chain gun, the M240 system has “a cost-per-kill as low as $10.”

Other defense firms are also working to procure more affordable counter-UAS defenses. This week, Lockheed Martin announced a cheaper Patriot interceptor missile that they say will have a price tag of less than half of what other multimillion-dollar interceptors cost.

The capability was demonstrated in April at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, using a Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station, or CROWS, equipped with software that has been designed to track and strike small drones while the vehicle is in motion.

The effort has been led by the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Armaments Center, according to the release.

The project, known as Simultaneous Weapon Autonomy Technology for Fire Control, or SWAT-FC, uses technology originally developed for the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft program and adapted to allow the weapons system to target and shoot from the ground.

The software uses sensors to provide constantly updating data, the announcement said, adding that once the system is developed fully, it will increase accuracy against small unmanned aircraft systems and decrease the number of rounds needed to disable them.

“It’s a great start to the effort,” Nick Cascia, the project’s armaments officer, said in the release. “The SWAT-FC team has put considerable time and effort into developing our advanced fire control algorithms and preparing for this test. Once we started destroying drones, it showed the hard work was paying off,” he said.

Soldiers at Joint Base Lewis-McChord cased the colors of the 1st Multi-Domain Task Forces Headquarters and 7th ID Headquarters Support Company and uncased the 7th Infantry Division (Multi-Domain Command-Pacific) Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion colors, in a merger that was first announced earlier this year.

“We are merging the operational endurance, flexibility and protection of our proven Stryker formations with the long-range sensing and precision fires of our multi-domain task force,” Maj. Gen. Bernard J. Harrington, the commanding general of the 7th ID (MDC-PAC), said in the Army release.

Central to the new command is what the Army calls the Cross Domain Contact Layer, a framework designed to connect intelligence gathering, electronic warfare and artificial intelligence into a continuous network.

It will combine sensors, drones, precision weapons and digital networks into a single architecture spanning land, air, sea, space and cyberspace.

“Through our emerging Cross Domain Contact Layer concept, our division will employ capabilities such as unmanned surface vessels; long-range, one-way attack drones; and launched effects to penetrate the adversary’s anti-access/area-denial network,” Harrington said in the release. “Every radar that emits, every node that transmits, every headquarters that commands, we aim to hold continuously at risk alongside our joint partners and allies.”

The change is part of the Army’s broader transformation initiative. According to the release, the redesignation reflects the service’s push to distribute advanced capabilities across maneuver formations operating in contested environments.

The redesignation builds on years of innovation in the Indo-Pacific, the Army said, including deployments by the 1st Multi-Domain Task Force, or MDTF, and collaboration with the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

“These soldiers have invested wholeheartedly in experimenting, deploying, and employing capabilities that work from the heavens to the earth, from the air to the sea, and flow with all the digits that go in between,” said Col. Charles W. Kean, the 7th ID (MDC-PAC) deputy commanding officer-effects and former 1st MDTF commander. “It has truly been inspirational to watch them in action.”

The astronaut will be part of a four-man crew that will tackle a host of difficult tests within Earth’s orbit in preparation for NASA’s 2028 Artemis IV flight, which will be the first crewed mission to the moon’s South Pole.

Rubio’s mission is slated to serve as a proving ground for future lunar landings, as the team will evaluate how the spacecraft navigates toward and docks with commercial landing systems developed by Blue Origin and SpaceX.

“My Army training has been an integral part of the experiences that have enabled me to be ready for this mission,” Rubio, a former Black Hawk pilot-turned-flight surgeon, said in a Tuesday statement released by the Army.

“Serving taught me to lead under pressure, how to stay calm when the stakes are highest, and how to put the mission and the people beside you above yourself,” he added.

Rubio’s selection as a mission specialist for Artemis III comes after a record-setting 371-day mission aboard the International Space Station from September 2022 to September 2023, where he set the American record for the longest single spaceflight. The unexpected yearlong mission saw Rubio complete 5,963 orbits around Earth, travel over 157 million miles and complete three spacewalks that amounted to 21 hours and 24 minutes in total.

His previous journey was only meant to last six months, but a spacecraft coolant leak prolonged the mission.

Before he began eschewing gravity in pursuit of outer space, Rubio served nearly 20 years as an aviator and then physician. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1998 and logged over flight 1,100 hours — more than 600 in combat during deployments to Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq — before beginning medical school and training as a family physician and flight surgeon.

At the time of Rubio’s NASA selection, he was a battalion surgeon for the 3rd Battalion of the 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) in Colorado.

Rubio is one of three Artemis III crew members with military backgrounds. Andre Douglas, who will serve as a mission specialist during the flight, graduated from the Coast Guard Academy before serving as a guardsman. Randy Bresnik, the crew’s commander, retired as a colonel in the Marine Corps.

Bob Hines, who was selected as backup crew member, is a colonel in the Air Force.

Nineteen Army astronauts have taken part in NASA’s space missions, but Rubio and Col. Anne McClain are the Army’s only active duty astronauts, according to the service. Chief Warrant Officer 3 Joseph Bailey, also on active duty, is an astronaut candidate and began his initial training in September 2025.

The U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command is looking to change that with its new Intrepid Battlefield EXoskeleton, or IBEX, system, a shoulder-to-foot brace that can be worn to allow injured troops to stand, walk and shoot when evacuation is impossible or delayed.

The device was designed to make an injured soldier more self-sufficient, so they can move themselves to safety instead of relying on the two-to-four additional troops it takes to carry a victim on a litter. The goal, the Army said in a release Wednesday, is to keep more soldiers firing until help arrives.

“In combat, troops suffer tibia fractures, torn knee ligaments, high-grade ankle sprains, and foot fractures; these are the most common but survivable battlefield injuries,” said Dr. Lee Childers, a senior scientist at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas.

“The IBEX enables more walking wounded, which means more warfighters putting bullets downrange while providing a smaller target for enemy drones to attack,” he said.

Drone warfare has dramatically changed the nature of combat and thus changed the way the military medical community must prepare to treat battlefield injuries.

In Ukraine, drones are routinely inflicting devastating limb injuries and drone swarms can cause high numbers of casualties in a short amount of time, overwhelming traditional field medicine tactics.

Weighing just seven pounds, the IBEX can fold into the size of a one liter bottle and be carried quickly to an injured soldier. It relieves the pressure on soft tissue, nerves and blood vessels, and is able to bear body weight.

Lower-leg injuries are often from gunshots or bomb blasts, the Army said, and soldiers suffered many such injuries during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. They can also be injured operating in rough terrain or bad weather.

Troops deployed to combat zones sustained over 22,000 non-amputated lower leg injuries between 2001 and 2018, according to the National Library of Medicine, which also reported that 68% of extremity injuries were fractures or open wounds.

The project was initiated in 2020 and has been tested by the Army, Navy and Marine Corps. It is now on its third round of funding and has been licensed by a commercial partner.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect that Dr. Lee Childers is a senior scientist at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas.

During the test, Marines launched a Neros Archer first-person-view, or FPV, drone from the ground before transferring control to operators aboard a helicopter orbiting miles away, the Corps announced in a statement last week, saying that the move was a step towards integrating inexpensive drones into aviation operations.

The goal, according to the release, was to see if aircraft like the UH-1Y Venom and AH-1Z Viper could extend the reach of FPV drones, which let operators watch a live feed of unmanned aircraft system from a screen or goggles.

“The primary objective was to test the feasibility of a non-kinetic drop and deployment of a first-person view drone from a moving helicopter, which we were able to do today,” said Capt. Quinton Thornbury, a UH-1Y Venom pilot with Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron (HMLA) 169, Marine Air Group 39, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing. “From there, validate that we can control the maneuver of that drone from the back of the aircraft.”

The service said it used the Neros Archer system because it has already been widely used and tested by Marine infantry units, which makes it easier to integrate into aircraft operations.

Low cost drones have become one of the defining weapons of today’s warfare, with widespread use in conflicts from Ukraine to the Middle East, forcing the military to wrestle with new doctrine and cost calculations as it seeks to modernize its forces.

Recently, the service announced that it had quickly expanded its FPV attack drone inventory, fielding more than 3,500 after officials greenlit integration of the new tech.

The latest iteration of Project Flytrap, a multinational exercise to test new drone technologies in a realistic conflict setting, pitted U.S. and allied forces against each other in scenarios that featured drone swarms, jamming systems and counter-UAS defenses that continue to redefine modern warfare.

Army leaders have emphasized the need to integrate drones into doctrine and tactics, as they say the rise of inexpensive, mass-produced drones have forced the service to rethink everything from aviation to infantry patrols.

Project Flytrap took place in Lithuania, involved nearly 1,000 personnel and centered around pushing the Army’s technology to its limits amid variable weather and terrain.

Exercise leaders speaking during a Thursday roundtable said soldiers practiced massing unmanned platforms to test the limits of their systems and practice pinning down enemy forces, sometimes using tens of drones at a time.

Sgt. 1st Class Tyler Harrington, a platoon sergeant for Eagle Troop, 2nd Cavalry Regiment, led soldiers in developing counter-UAS tactics during the exercise. The proliferation of drones has changed the basics of soldiering, modifying even the way units conduct basic patrols.

“I’m out there doing my patrols and all of a sudden you hear buzzing. No longer am I just scanning to my 12:00 and around me at ground level,” he said. Now, his troops must look up.

They must also learn to listen.

“You have to now learn the sounds of the drones,” Harrington said, adding a chilling and provocative question, “does it sound like one of the one-way attack drones coming in our potential direction?”

During the roundtable, leaders also highlighted how units used additive manufacturing — like 3-D printing — to quickly create replacement parts and modifications for drone systems in the field.

For the first time, the Army applied testing standards established by Joint Interagency Task Force 401, or JIATF 401, as troops trialed and collected data on over 20 different systems, including drones not yet fielded to the ranks.

The task force, which was established by the Pentagon in 2025, consolidates drone-related acquisition and standards across the country in an attempt to contend with the rapid evolution of unmanned aerial technology in conflicts across the world.

Warfare — from Eastern Europe to the Middle East — has shifted as both state and nonstate actors have begun to attack with hordes of drones that are cheap yet advanced.

The Army is grappling with how to defend its soldiers against these new air threats and also procure and use similar weapons advantageously.

The U.S. and its allies in the Middle East have sought Ukraine’s advice in defending against Iran’s Shahed drones, weapons that the eastern European country has ample experience countering in its war with Russia.

The lessons gleaned from exercises like Project Flytrap tie into broader modernization discussions in Washington.

In a Friday House Armed Services Committee hearing, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll said the service was racing to restructure how it fights in a drone-flooded battlefield, “where swarms of drones are going to be attacking an Apache.”

Discussing aviation modernization during budget testimony, Driscoll added, “if you look all over the world, there are not good solutions for that.”

The defense technology firm introduced the system, known as MAYHEM 10, which expands upon its Switchblade family.

The Army in February announced a $186 million purchase that includes two variants of Switchblade one-way attack, or “kamikaze,” drones: the Switchblade 600 Block 2 variant and the Switchblade 300 Block 20 variant.

The difference is that MAYHEM 10 is multifunctional, meaning it can perform tasks in addition to striking. The new system can carry a 10-pound payload and has a range of over 62 miles, per the release.

The system is capable of 50 minutes of endurance, with a launch assembly that can be done in under five minutes, the statement says. It can also be launched from the air, ground or maritime platforms.

“By integrating advanced autonomy, multi-domain payloads, and rapid adaptability, we empower our forces to sense, disrupt, and strike with precision — even in the most contested environments,” Wahid Nawabi, AeroVironment’s chairman, president and chief executive officer, said in the statement.

Last year, U.S. soldiers tested the Switchblade 600 system, which has a range of 27 miles and is designed to engage a target using onboard cameras.

The Switchblade 300 Block 20, unlike the heavier 600 variant, is small enough to be carried in a backpack. For the first time, according to a February AeroVironment announcement, it will come equipped with an Explosively Formed Penetrator, a deadly warhead that is made to penetrate armored vehicles.

Thomley is part of 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team’s Transformation in Contact initiative, or TIC, where junior soldiers on the ground are at the forefront of experimenting with new drone capabilities and helping to drive the direction of Army doctrine from the ground up.

In armored brigades built around tanks and heavy firepower, the approach reflects how lessons from Ukraine are pushing leaders to rethink how formations move and survive on a battlefield saturated with aerial surveillance.

Selected internally, soldiers at Fort Stewart say operators start on everyday computer simulation programs before transitioning to real flights.

“We really train on regular computers — it’s a little gaming app called Liftoff — and you fly drones on there,” Thomley said while demonstrating a small reconnaissance quadcopter’s capabilities on an unusually cool Georgia day. “From that, you learn how a drone moves and how you need to angle it to make it go a certain way.”

Liftoff is a commercially available drone flying simulator that allows all types of users to fly drones in first-person view. It can be purchased from Steam, a gaming platform that can be downloaded by soldiers and civilians alike.

First-person view lets a soldier watch and steer the drone as if they are flying on the front of it. Soldiers at Fort Stewart have been training to fly while wearing goggles, an immersive experience that can be disorienting and produce motion sickness.

“The controllers are inverted so it’s very confusing at first,” Thomley said.

If a user wants the drone to go up, they have to look down, and vice versa. Once a soldier masters flying in the simulation, they can practice piloting the real thing.

The approach marks a departure from the Army’s traditional training model, where new capabilities often move through formal schoolhouses and standardized programs before reaching operational units.

Under the TIC initiative, soldiers test technology first and shape how it is used before doctrine and acquisition catch up.

Selected brigades are given access to emerging innovations like drones, electronic warfare equipment and new communications devices.

Changes to drone capabilities within the brigade are informed through feedback from operators driving decisions about how equipment is used, how much equipment is fielded and how drones play into the armor-centric battle.

Unlike traditional weapons training, which follows a standardized Army progression, drone instruction is still evolving.

Thomley said he did not attend a formal drone school and that he volunteered to try out the brigade’s new capabilities when leadership presented the opportunity.

2ABCT, meanwhile, is part of the second TIC iteration, which is shifting the focus to Armor Brigade Combat Teams and division-level assets to apply lessons learned from Russia’s war on Ukraine.

The experimentation comes as Army leaders study how drones have drastically altered the battlefield overseas, where both sides use unmanned aerial vehicles to scout and strike.

“When you talk about looking at our adversaries across the world, everyone is watching the battles there in Ukraine,” said Col. Alexis Perez-Cruz, the brigade’s commander.

Perez-Cruz added that the Army — and the armor community — is consistently studying the conflict to see how new technology will change future wars, asking “How do we use our imagination to look at the future and be able to fight the way that we’re seeing it out there, and imagining how we will be able to fight in large-scale combat operations?”

For soldiers like Thomley, the shift is a new skill set layered onto a traditional cavalry mission — to spot and understand the battlefield before the enemy.

But instead of binoculars pressed into tired eyes peering out of a foxhole, that view increasingly comes from a camera mounted to a drone hovering hundreds of feet in the sky.

The new specialty, designated 49B, will be open to eligible officers through the Voluntary Transfer Incentive Program, beginning in January 2026, with the goal of developing a group of leaders that “advances the Army’s ongoing transformation into a data-centric and AI-enabled force,” the statement said.

The Army said officers with applicable backgrounds would use their expertise to accelerate decision-making, sharpen targeting, improve logistics efficiency and support the fielding of robotics systems on the battlefield.

“This is a deliberate and crucial step in keeping pace with present and future operational requirements,” Lt. Col. Orlando Howard, an Army spokesperson, said in a statement. “We’re building a dedicated cadre of in-house experts who will be at the forefront of integrating AI and machine learning across our warfighting functions.”

The statement said the program was open to all officers eligible to voluntarily transfer branches, but those with related background experience or education “will be particularly competitive candidates.”

The officers chosen for the new pathway will get graduate-level training and hands-on experience with AI-enabled systems, the statement said, adding that officers will be reclassified by the end of fiscal year 2026.

The Army is considering broadening the program in the future to include warrant officers.

The new officer roles were announced shortly after the Pentagon launched GenAI.mil, an artificial intelligence platform for the Department of Defense, and then announced an upcoming expansion of available tools.

In 2025, the Army also introduced a Robotics Technician specialty for warrant officers, meant to provide brigade and special forces formations with information on robotics, AI and machine-learning.