{"id":2004,"date":"2025-11-29T01:14:45","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T01:14:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/daily-bullet.com\/?p=2004"},"modified":"2026-02-12T12:48:56","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T12:48:56","slug":"taking-flight-pennsylvania-guard-expands-drone-usage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/daily-bullet.com\/?p=2004","title":{"rendered":"Taking Flight: Pennsylvania Guard Expands Drone Usage"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FORT INDIANTOWN GAP, Pa<\/strong>. \u2013 In a small aircraft hangar on the east end of the post, a makeshift obstacle course has been built primarily from leftover construction material such as wood and PVC pipes.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t an obstacle course for Soldiers to test their fitness or agility. It\u2019s for operators of unmanned aircraft systems, commonly known as drones.<\/p>\n

As seen in Ukraine and elsewhere around the world, drones are becoming more prevalent on the modern battlefield. Where once troops and manned vehicles reigned supreme, unmanned systems now perform numerous missions, including direct attacks, surveillance and target acquisition.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Pennsylvania National Guard has been using drones for more than a decade, primarily for surveillance and reconnaissance. As tactics have changed in places such as Ukraine, Pennsylvania has strived to keep pace. Chief Warrant Officer 2 Nathan Shea, operations officer with the Unmanned Aircraft Systems facility, said he believes unmanned systems will play an even larger role in future warfare.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnmanned systems as a whole \u2013 whether that be unmanned aircraft, ground, naval, all of the above \u2013 are going to be a massive player in shaping future fights and how we fight,\u201d Shea said. \u201cThe more we can remove humans from the front lines and direct combat, I think the more you\u2019re going to see that.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

High-stakes training<\/strong><\/p>\n

The UAS facility at Fort Indiantown Gap dates to 2007 and originally housed the RQ-7 Shadow UAS, which the 28th Infantry Division used until January 2024, when the Army stopped using Shadows.<\/p>\n

The Shadow was a fixed-wing UAS with a 20-foot wingspan that was designed for surveillance, reconnaissance and target acquisition, said Shea, who is a member of the 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, or SBCT.<\/p>\n

Since the Army has not yet fielded a replacement system for the Shadow, the UAS facility is in a transitional phase. Shea and the other Soldiers who work there are experimenting with different kinds of drones, including first-person-view, or FPV, drones.<\/p>\n

The obstacle course, built inside a former Shadow hangar, allows FPV drone operators to practice flying.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great indoor, all-weather space that we get to utilize, and it focuses on building out tactics,\u201d Shea said. \u201cEvery obstacle, as random as they may seem placed, has a very specific purpose. It\u2019s meant to build accuracy for the pilots.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Shea returned from a deployment with the 56th SBCT to Germany, where the brigade assumed responsibility of Joint Multinational Training Group \u2013 Ukraine, which trains Ukrainian soldiers. His role was to oversee all UAS operations and the UAS training programs for the Ukrainian Armed Forces.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe trained these operators from nothing to full-blown drone operators ready to go to war in about 45 days\u2019 time,\u201d Shea said. \u201cIt was a very high-stress program. The stakes were very high, and there was very little room for error on either party\u2019s part.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shea said he built an obstacle course in Germany similar to the one at the UAS facility to train Ukrainian soldiers, and he plans to build an outdoor training course eventually.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Like other Army units \u2013 both active duty and National Guard \u2013 Pennsylvania is waiting for funding to build out its UAS capabilities, Shea said. He knows which systems he would like and which are needed to support the different missions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no 100 percent answer on a system right now,\u201d Shea said. \u201cWhat works for the cav [cavalry] is not going to work for the engineers, probably. The advantage is we already tested a lot of these systems, so we know what systems we need, we know what modifications we need to make to those systems to make them fit more warfighting functions.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u2018UAS is the future\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

At the 166th Regiment \u2013 Regional Training Institute, a U.S. Army schoolhouse on Fort Indiantown Gap that offers numerous courses, instructors are teaching students in several military occupational specialties about drones.<\/p>\n

On a recent day, Soldiers from across the Army attending the infantry Advanced Leader Course, or ALC, received a drone familiarization class.<\/p>\n

The class was split: half of the Soldiers conducted dismounted infantry operations and infantry tactics, while the other half discussed drone use and what\u2019s happening on the front lines now. While half of the class had those discussions, an instructor used a small quadcopter drone to observe the other half of the class in the nearby woods.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we look at the operational environment and the battlefields around the world right now, UAS is the future, and we have to address that fight,\u201d said Sgt. 1st Class Mark Thompson, course manager for the infantry ALC at the 166th Regiment. \u201cThese guys are going to be the ones on the front lines, whatever the next major engagement is, so we want them to be able to see drones and experience them for the first time here in a controlled environment, not on the front lines.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very, very important for them to be able to start encompassing that in the way that they train, the way that they operate,\u201d Thompson added.<\/p>\n

Thompson said the 166th Regiment is implementing drones on different fronts. In addition to the familiarization classes, the 1st Battalion also runs the Small Unmanned Aerial System Operator Course, in which students learn drone basics.<\/p>\n

The 166th has been using UAS for several years, and the training is constantly evolving as new technologies and new tactics emerge, Thompson said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a fantastic staff who are all very dedicated to maintaining the most current up-to-date stuff coming off the battlefield right now, whether that be in the European theater or around the world, or down at the border in the United States, how drones are being implemented by friendly and by enemy assets,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cWhen we get that stuff, we pretty much have a working group as a staff, discuss the positives and negatives, and then we implement it to the students.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thompson said UAS familiarization is very important because it gives Soldiers a foundational knowledge base to operate drones efficiently.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want them to be able have that foundational knowledge in a training environment so that when they actually go to do it in real world, they are 10 times more proficient because they have that foundational base,\u201d Thompson said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Drones in the field<\/strong><\/p>\n

Across the Pennsylvania National Guard, Soldiers have increased their use of drones during training throughout the past year.<\/p>\n

In August, Soldiers with 1-109th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team \u2013 along with Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 107th Field Artillery Regiment and representatives of Carnegie Mellon University\u2019s Software Engineering Institute \u2013 used drones and artificial intelligence to make the process of requesting artillery fire less stressful for Soldiers on the battlefield.<\/p>\n

The exercise, part of Project Shrike, used a software package developed by Carnegie Mellon University\u2019s Software Engineering Institute in partnership with the U.S. Army Artificial Intelligence Integration Center. This artificial intelligence-enabled system enables artillery units to detect, target and engage threats faster and with greater precision. The project reduces the complex task of calling for fire to mere seconds.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cThe system highlights targets and recommends firing solutions for operator decision,\u201d said Chad Hershberger, a software engineer with Carnegie Mellon University\u2019s Software Engineering Institute. \u201cThe human is in the decision loop in order to accept or reject the system\u2019s recommendation.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a similar exercise in November 2024, instructors from the 166th Regiment\u2019s 1st Battalion used quadcopter drones to gather target information and send it to students taking the artillery Advanced Leader Course under the guidance of instructors from the 2nd Battalion. The students then engaged the targets with howitzers.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

They also used drones to observe the fall of the artillery rounds, make required adjustments and conduct battle-damage assessments.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been seeing it through open-source intelligence, obviously in the conflict that\u2019s going on in Ukraine, that they\u2019ve been doing a lot of these things, so we\u2019re adjusting with the times, and we\u2019re developing procedures and efficiencies in order to conduct these tasks,\u201d said Sgt. 1st Class Richard Hutnik, quality assurance noncommissioned officer for the 1st Battalion who was piloting a drone during the exercise.<\/p>\n

Whether on an obstacle course, in a classroom or in a field training environment, the Pennsylvania National Guard is attempting to stay at the forefront of drone tactics and technology as drone usage continually increases on the battlefield.<\/p>\n

By Brad Rhen<\/em><\/p>\n

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