British Army soldiers have been learning new drone combat skills on a three-week workshop delivered by uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) specialists from the Parachute Regiment.
Members of 2nd Battalion The Parachute Regiment’s UAS Platoon, the first such dedicated unit set up in the British Army, delivered the intensive course at the Bramley ranges in Hampshire this summer.
Soldiers already trained to fly First Person View (FPV) UAS taught soldiers how to fight with them on one-way attack (OWA) missions.
As per a recent British Army press statement, the 2 Para instructors had previously trained at the Army’s UAS Centre at Lulworth as OWA team commanders and were cascading their skills to qualify soldiers from across 1st (UK) Division as OWA operators.
Commander of 2 Para’s UAS Platoon Colour Sergeant Danny Wade, who led the training, commented: “We’re teaching soldiers from the ground up how to configure and fly FPV UAS and then how to fight with them, working as a team alongside reconnaissance drones to find and strike targets.”
He added: “It’s very different training and FPV flying is a hard skill to learn, but everyone has put the effort in and progressed well.
“The entry point is for a soldier to have 30 flying hours on a simulator, and across the three weeks they’ll have logged another 100 hours both on the simulator and flying. The ability to fly accurately is more important than speed, because we want to be able to hit exact points on a target to maximise the damage.”
CSgt Wade continued: “This is an entirely new class of weapon and, as yet, there’s no formal Army doctrine on OWA. It’s been a steep learning curve for us with a lot of trial and error. There’s so much to think about, from logistics to command and control, and how we co-ordinate UAS with artillery and air support.
“We’ve looked hard at the technology, studied how the Ukrainians and NATO armies are using it, and developed our own tactics. This workshop is about sharing our thinking and skills for the soldiers we’re training to take back and adapt to suit their unit’s role and approach.”
- You can read more details on the British Army website
