U.S. Military Drills Against Drone Swarms

Reference News Network, May 19 report According to the U.S. Defense News Weekly website on May 16, in an era filled with drones, the U.S. military is no longer satisfied with merely addressing single aircraft threats, but has begun to practice tactics against drone swarms and learn how to utilize drone swarms.

The new round of the "Venomous Flytrap Program" multinational exercises aims to test new drone technologies in a combat environment. During the exercises, the U.S. military and its allies acted as opponents, simulating confrontations involving drone swarms, jamming systems, and counter-drone defense systems, with these tactics continuously reshaping the nature of modern warfare.

Senior officials in the U.S. Army emphasized that drone components must be integrated into military regulations and tactics. They pointed out that with the rise of inexpensive mass-produced drones, the Army must reassess all aspects from aerial operations to infantry patrols.

The exercises were held in Lithuania, with nearly a thousand personnel participating, focusing on testing the limits of Army technology under changing weather and terrain conditions.

The exercise commander stated at a roundtable meeting on the 14th that soldiers practiced collective drone launches to test their own system limits and practice suppressing enemy forces. At times, dozens of drones would launch simultaneously.

Sergeant First Class Tyler Harrington from the "Eagle" Company of the 2nd Mechanized Battalion led soldiers in refining counter-drone tactics during the exercises. He stated that the large influx of drones has changed the basic operational norms for soldiers, even altering the way units conduct basic patrol tasks.

He said, "For example, when I'm out on patrol and suddenly hear a buzzing sound, I can no longer just observe directly in front of me and around me." Now soldiers must look up and also learn to discern enemy activity by sound.

At the roundtable meeting, commanders also emphasized the use of technologies like 3D printing by troops to quickly manufacture replacement parts for drone systems and make modifications under field conditions.

The U.S. Army has for the first time adopted testing standards developed by the 401st Joint Interagency Task Force, conducting tests and data collection on more than 20 drone systems, including some models that have not yet been fielded.

This task force was established by the Pentagon in 2025 to coordinate the procurement and standardization of drone-related technologies across the U.S. to address the rapid evolution of unmanned aerial technology in global conflicts.

From Eastern Europe to the Middle East, the nature of warfare has changed, with state and non-state actors launching attacks using large numbers of advanced drone swarms.

The U.S. Army is working hard to explore how to protect soldiers from these new aerial threats while actively procuring and effectively utilizing similar weapons.

The U.S. and its allies in the Middle East have sought advice from Ukraine to counter Iran's "Witness" drones. Ukraine has accumulated rich countermeasure experience in its war against Russian forces.

At a House Armed Services Committee hearing on the 15th, Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll stated that the Army is accelerating its transformation to adapt to the prevalence of drones on the battlefield. (Translated by Zhu Li)