HUNTSVILLE, Alabama \u2014 Soldiers from across the U.S. Army showcased drone warfare skills and ideas in the service\u2019s first annual Best Drone Warfighter Competition held here this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The competition, launched on Tuesday, is an Army event sponsored by the Army Aviation Association of America. It drew over 800 attendees and competing teams drawn from every Army unit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It mirrors existing Army competitions such as Best Sapper, Best Ranger and Best Sniper, with emphasis on drone warfare. Soldiers compete in three lanes for the titles of Best Operator, Best Tactical Hunter-Killer Team, and Best Innovation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The lanes include a drone racing obstacle course, a cross-country field exercise in which soldiers pair up to take out targets, and an innovation lane which sees soldiers showcase drone technology they\u2019ve developed to a panel of five judges. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese lanes absolutely inform and tell us what kind of skills we need to train to make them the best at what we expect them to do,\u201d Col. Nicholas Ryan, director of Army UAS Transformation and Lessons Learned Manager at the Army\u2019s Aviation Center of Excellence, told Military Times. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The focus of the competition is not on gaining points or acclaim but developing recipes for success in the unmanned domain, Ryan said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All lanes focus on gathering input from soldiers about what drone technology is proving effective and why, encouraging participants to share solutions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Additionally, the innovation lane gives soldiers experience with building and modifying their drone equipment – an essential skill in the fast-moving domain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat fabrication and modification aspect is also something we\u2019ve taken from Ukraine because that\u2019s what their operators do and it\u2019s necessary for them to adjust their equipment to meet their mission demands,\u201d Ryan said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt is now built into our UAS training courses teaching them how to 3-D print, how to design, how to code and how to build their own drones.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Soldiers competing in the Best Operator lane raced Neros Archer FPV drones. The Neros was chosen to establish a baseline for competitors to showcase their skills on a standard drone platform, offering a modular design that is easy to repair. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The lane saw soldiers fly drones through an intricate obstacle course and perform complex maneuvers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
While some operators were not used to racing, Captain Jacob Bickus, officer in charge of the Army Drone Team, told Military Times that hands-on practice is essential to build skills through familiarity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEven though it\u2019s racing, it\u2019s still good practice for them to build their skills,\u201d Bickus said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Asked what makes a good drone operator, Bickus told Military Times that the most important quality is to have an open mind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey have to be creative and innovative, and have an engineer problem-solving mindset because with these drones there are so many intricacies and knowledge you have to have to be able to proficiently operate them,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Future iterations of the Army competition event could incorporate drone swarm tactics, though that depends on the pace of developing technology, Ryan told Military Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe absolutely want it in the Army, and want to use it in the Army. It\u2019s not there just yet,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat is absolutely a task and a requirement we do want to incorporate which we refer to as the one-to-many control, so one operator controlling many drones simultaneously.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Drones are now an essential tool within the Army and the competition will help identify how the service can strengthen existing capabilities, Ryan explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing is that is going to be a common capability and piece of equipment across every formation of every type and any group of soldiers,\u201d Ryan said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He added that fully autonomous systems may be suitable to performing some basic tasks for the Army in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere will be so many mission sets that drones can do and various types of technology across ranges of autonomy, and that\u2019s something that we\u2019re looking at very closely as well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The event is in line with service plans to incorporate unmanned technology at every echelon of the force.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":112151,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":21,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3297],"class_list":["post-31833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-unmanned"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"R6KO7TK5TJGPXHK5HPCQMBZYVE","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-military\/2026\/02\/19\/us-army-lets-soldiers-flaunt-their-drone-skills-in-first-ever-competition\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n