US-made armored vehicles in service with the Ukrainian military are up against an unfamiliar threat on the battlefield, one that they haven't faced in previous wars.
Russia and Ukraine employ small drones strapped with explosives as a way to deliver cheap and effective precision strikes on enemy armor, often damaging or destroying them.
The US Army is closely watching how US armored systems delivered to Ukraine — specifically the M1 Abrams tank and M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicle — are performing in combat and holding up in this new type of warfare.
It's also taking lessons from the conflict and applying them in training, teaching new soldiers how to grasp the threat of small drones. Col. James Modlin, the deputy commandant of the US Army Armor School, said that it was "important" for them to be able to understand the prevalence of small unmanned systems on future battlefields and that the fight was changing.
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"It's really just recognizing that it's a threat — that this is something that's out there," he told Business Insider in a conversation this week. "You have to look up, you have to look 360" degrees, he said.
The Armor School, a component of the Army's Maneuver Center of Excellence at Fort Moore in Georgia, is where US soldiers train on the fundamentals of becoming armored crew members. This means learning about what sort of threats they could face in future operating environments based on the situation unfolding across current battlefields.
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Paying attention to drone warfare is key when observing the Ukraine war. Modlin noted that new US soldiers training on Abrams or Bradleys aren't necessarily going to know whether they're facing a reconnaissance or combat drone. What's more important is knowing that it could be a threat either way and being able to relay that knowledge to leadership.
"There's a lot of unknowns out there," Modlin said, explaining that "for the privates, it's about increasing their situational awareness and their ability to recognize what is in the environment."
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New drones, new fight
The US military has long used larger drones such as the MQ-9 Reaper for surveillance and kinetic strikes.
But about a decade ago, American forces in the Middle East started to face cheap, commercially available drones in combat, as the Islamic State weaponized these systems by strapping explosives to them and using them in attacks. Small drones also later played a role in the 2020 conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
However, drone warfare has soared to new levels in Ukraine. Kyiv and Moscow have used these systems to carry out precision strikes on enemy armor, personnel, fortifications, and even individual soldiers.
Both sides have also developed countermeasures to protect their tanks and fighting vehicles from drones, such as welding crude-looking protective screens to the exterior as a last-ditch defensive measure. The screens have become common and have even been fitted on US-provided armor such as the Abrams.
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Modlin said Ukraine was a good example of how drones play a role in modern warfare, but the lessons that the Army was teaching its soldiers weren't solely focused on that specific conflict.
"When we look across all the emerging threat environments, that's a very similar challenge," he said. "The American Army really hasn't had to worry too much about enemy aircraft in an awfully long time — since my grandfather was in uniform."
"It's something we've been talking about for a while, but now we're starting to see it play out a little bit more prevalent in conflicts," he added.
Indeed, Israeli armored vehicles mobilized for the war in Gaza have been outfitted with anti-drone protective screens that are similar to the ones seen in Ukraine.
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Teaching US soldiers about the threat of drones to armored vehicles is just one way the Army is increasingly incorporating anti-drone training across the board. For instance, American service members are also learning how to track and shoot down small drones with handheld weapons and devices — which is a more mobile approach to the problem.
When it comes to armored-vehicle operations and combat, though, responding to drone warfare is just one area where the Army is evolving. Modlin said dozens of courses at the Maneuver Center of Excellence had been updated over the past few years based on observations from conflicts overseas.
He said the Army was constantly looking to improve its training so the next generation of leaders could be prepared for large-scale ground operations — something the US hasn't really seen in decades.
"Competence as an Army professional starts with the understanding of the threat, but it doesn't end there," Modlin said. "So we're paying really close attention to the lessons learned overseas — we're looking at what is happening around the world."
