Plans also call for the facility to eventually have a drone racecourse and host competitions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are building this facility out so that everybody is going to get a better level of education,\u201d said Chief Warrant Officer 2 Nathan Shea, the facility\u2019s officer in charge. \u201cWe truly are trying to embrace building smarter Soldiers for the future Army. In addition, we\u2019re giving them the tools and training them how to use those tools. The more tools we can put in their back pocket as they move forward, the more ready they\u2019re going to be for future fights.\u201d<\/p>\n

The facility has been a beehive of activity over the last few months. On Feb. 19, a team of Soldiers from the facility won the innovation competition at the U.S. Army\u2019s inaugural Best Drone Warfighter Competition in Alabama. Since then, activity at the facility has \u201cexploded,\u201d Shea said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going through a massive amount of changes,\u201d said Shea, who is assigned to M Company, 56th Mobile Brigade Combat Team. \u201cThis facility has become a massive hub for training, and our lab space has never been busier.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since the Best Drone Warfighter Competition, the UAS Training and Innovation Facility has been designated as a training site for the 15X military occupational specialty transition course and as the primary training site for drones selected in the Department of War\u2019s Drone Gauntlet competition.<\/p>\n

As a result of these additional programs, construction is underway on upgrades to the facility, and the number of full-time employees has increased from six to 16.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had a lot of new people come in, a lot of building changes and a lot of equipment changes,\u201d said Sgt. 1st Class Brent Wehr, course manager for the 15X MOS transition course. \u201cThere\u2019s been a lot of big changes here.\u201d<\/p>\n

A \u2018heavy lift\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

The UAS facility was established in 2007. Initially, it was home to 28th Infantry Division units that used the RQ-7 Shadow, a fixed-wing UAS with a 20-foot wingspan, designed for surveillance, reconnaissance and target acquisition.<\/p>\n

The Army stopped using Shadows in January 2024, and Soldiers at the facility then began experimenting with small, first-person view, or FPV, drones as they awaited a new mission. New missions arrived this year in the form of the 15X MOS-T course and the Drone Gauntlet training program.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania was selected to be one of two states, along with Mississippi, to host the 15X MOS-T course for the reserve component. The course is part of the effort to merge two MOSs, 15W (Shadow UAS operator) and 15E (UAS maintainer), Shea said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea moving forward is an operator and a maintainer will be the same thing, and that\u2019s where we get the 15X,\u201d Shea said.<\/p>\n

The first class is expected to begin in October, and Shea expects six classes per year to be conducted at the UASTIF.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Drone Gauntlet competition, meanwhile, is part of the Department of War\u2019s \u201cDrone Dominance\u201d guidance issued in 2025. Through the program, the Unmanned Aircraft System Training and Innovation Facility, or UASTIF, will receive eight drones that are selected during the Drone Gauntlet, and Soldiers at the facility will receive training on the drones from their manufacturers.<\/p>\n

The Soldiers will then train Soldiers from active- and reserve-component Army units selected to receive the drones.<\/p>\n

The UASTIF was selected for this program because of its close relationship with Tobyhanna Army Depot in northeast Pennsylvania and Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey, as well as the work the facility was already doing in the drone space, Shea said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cWe get the new equipment training from the vendor, and then our job is to train all of active duty as well as some National Guard that have been selected for it,\u201d Shea said. \u201cIt\u2019s quite the heavy lift as we go through this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Upgrades on the horizon<\/strong><\/p>\n

With the new programs, significant changes are coming to the facility. A maintenance area that was previously converted into an innovation lab will be expanded to become an innovation classroom. The lab currently has several soldering stations and three 3D printers, with two more printers on the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a space where we can instruct in soldering skills, printing skills, everything like that,\u201d Shea said. \u201cIt\u2019s designed to be lab space for Soldiers to receive instruction and give our own people the space to work, tear apart systems, repair systems and everything else along those lines.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The 3D printers are used to prototype drone parts or to print repair parts that may have broken on an existing drone.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in the facility, a high-tech classroom, a simulator room and a locker room are being added, as well as office space for the facility\u2019s full-time personnel.<\/p>\n

In addition to changes inside the UASTIF, several upgrades are underway outside. The facility has had an indoor drone obstacle course for about a year and recently built an outdoor course. They are both made primarily from construction materials such as lumber and PVC pipe. The indoor course is where Soldiers first start learning to fly drones, and the outdoor obstacle course was designed to mimic flying through windows and doors in an urban setting, Shea said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In the coming weeks, a mock urban village made from shipping containers will be moved from elsewhere on Fort Indiantown Gap\u2019s grounds to the facility\u2019s grounds to create a UAS-specific urban operations site. Eventually, Shea said, the facility will have a drone racecourse and host competitions.<\/p>\n

An exciting time<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wehr, who has worked at the UASTIF for six years and has been involved in UAS operations for his entire 12-year military career, said it\u2019s an exciting time to be at the facility.<\/p>\n

\u201cShadow was fun back in the day,\u201d said Wehr, who is assigned to M Company, 56th Mobile Brigade Combat Team. \u201cIt was a more standard schedule, but with all these changes it\u2019s definitely more exciting and more hands-on than it used to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s UAS operators have to know more than just how to fly one; they need to be able to fix them as well, Wehr said. The UASTIF will help Soldiers learn to do both.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a great facility,\u201d Wehr said. \u201cIt\u2019s a perfect place to learn how to fly and how to fix drones.\u201d<\/p>\n

The UASTIF was already a great facility, Shea said, and with all the changes coming, it\u2019s going to be even more technologically advanced. He noted that six months ago the facility didn\u2019t have any 3D printers or soldering stations, and its classroom space was limited.<\/p>\n

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

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