U.S. Marine Corps tests kamikaze drones in Japan

The U.S. Marine Corps has tested kamikaze drones in Japan, flying Neros Archer one-way attack drones armed with live explosive warheads at Combined Arms Training Center Camp Fuji, at the foot of Mount Fuji, on Oct. 20, 2026, the first time the drone has been used in its live kinetic form at the range.

Marines from Battalion Landing Team 1/1 of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit flew the drones into targets in two separate training scenarios, one of them an anti-armor ambush, and both flights ended with the targets destroyed and no unexploded drones left on the range for the Explosive Ordnance Disposal team to recover.

“This week is the first time, here at CATC Camp Fuji, that we’ve deployed the Neros Archer in a live kinetic variant,” said Chief Warrant Officer 2 Stephen Bilbo, Camp Fuji’s Gunner and Range Control Officer. “Neros Archer is the current Marine Corps’ program of record for one-way attack drones flown by a first-person view pilot.”

The Archer is a small first-person-view strike drone built by Neros Technologies of El Segundo, California, and flown by a pilot wearing a video headset who steers it directly into the target, and the Camp Fuji flights follow the U.S. Marine Corps’ first live-fire FPV attack drone training, held in South Korea on July 30 and Aug. 5, when Marines from the 3rd Marine Division struck armored and personnel targets with Archers at ranges of up to about 20 km (12.4 miles).

The Marines in Japan are testing how the drone fits into small ground units, and the battalion described the exercise as a different kind of training from what 1st Battalion, 1st Marines had previously done at its home station at Camp Pendleton, California.

“This scenario is going to be a little bit different than we’ve done in the past, this is going to be a proof of concept tied to our hunter-killer teams. The goal of this is to be an extension of our hunter-killers’ capabilities with defeating armor and a means of ground line communication within our adversary force,” said Master Sgt. Glenn Dayton, company operations chief of Weapons Company, Battalion Landing Team 1/1.

The pilots are junior enlisted Marines, from lance corporal to sergeant, who are hand-picked by their unit leadership for a three-week operator course, and the only prerequisite is that they have no previous drone experience, which the U.S. Marine Corps says lets them learn the Archer’s flying skills without old habits to unlearn.

“All this is handled by noncommissioned officers and non-NCOs,” said Dayton. “You’re looking at the heart and soul of our ground force. This is not executed by staff NCO or officers, I think that’s a huge aspect. Our lower enlisted are the ones we rely on to master this craft.”

A few dozen observers watched the two flights, and the Camp Fuji EOD technicians were there because an armed drone that fails to detonate is treated as live ordnance lying on the range.

“The drone carries an explosive payload, if for any reason it’s not able to function as designed with the controller and it goes down [without exploding] it counts as unexploded ordnance or UXO and then that falls under our bread and butter,” said Staff Sgt. Francisco Melandez, a CATC Camp Fuji explosive ordnance technician.

The U.S. Marine Corps signed a $17 million contract for 8,000 Archer Strike drones, while the U.S. Army has turned to the same company for its own FPV needs, awarding Neros a contract worth up to $500 million in 2026 after selecting it in November 2025 as one of three primary manufacturers for its Purpose-Built Attritable Systems program.