The Army's top general has directed a Europe-based unit specializing in drone warfare to revert to traditional infantry roles.

An Army unit based in Europe that was specializing in drone warfare has been directed to end its efforts to learn and use the battlefield technology and return to being a traditional infantry battalion, officials said Thursday.

For more nearly a year, soldiers of the 173rd Airborne Brigade have been experimenting and building their own drones, as well as participating in drills on waging unmanned warfare after Ukraine pioneered such tactics in its yearslong conflict with Russia. Last November, 600 soldiers formed a battalion that specialized in drone warfare and was set up to be used as a dedicated unit that could deploy anywhere drones were required.

Gen. Christopher LaNeve, the Army’s acting chief of staff, has ordered the battalion to refocus on its core mission of being an airborne infantry unit, according to two U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal Army deliberations. The Wall Street Journal earlier reported the change.

  • AlteredEgo@lemmy.ml
    2·
    3 days ago

    Maybe they want to privatize it. Like a private company building and controlling drones for them. Outsourcing drone warfare to corporations and AI, as well as vassal states.

    NATO 3.0 also plans to privatize national defense industries in Europe and separate components by country. Complete insanity unless you think about it in terms of corporate hegemony. The technofascists around Thiel that got Trump into office a second time.

    They don’t really take war seriously. Neither the US nor EU. They think it’s just a game and believe themselves to be invulnerable. War is what happens elsewhere. The reality is impossible to accept. Iran basically kicked the US out of their region and forced them to retreat precisely because of the overwhelming cheap drone warfare they were able to launch, because their defense industry is state owned.

    Of course diplomacy and mutual respect for security needs would be far better to avoid war. Cdre. Steve Jermy (video) calls it diplomatic incompetency. They also talk about the new nature of air warfare and that we currently have no defense against it.

    The Spirt of Westphalia: - by Steve Jermy

    Western Air Defence – as I set out in ‘Principles & Practice of Air Defence’[4], Ukraine’s skies cannot be defended by the West. Nor is this situation likely to improve in the next five years. But not only is Ukraine undefendable from the air, so too is Europe. Which should worry Europeans, when we have the E3 providing to Ukraine heavier missiles and drones that can strike deep into Russia. As I explained in ‘The Coming War with Russia’, were Russia to retaliate against E3 weapons manufacturers, not only would Britain, France and Germany be unable to defend against such retaliation, but nor could any other European state, as the US’s current setbacks in Iran unequivocally demonstrate. In the face of any Russia retaliation, the much-vaunted NATO Article 5 guarantee would be useless.

    • iocase@lemmy.zip
      2·
      3 days ago

      They’re protecting incumbent rent seekers.

      Rheinmetal did pretty much this. They made an overcomplicated shipping container truck launcher for $140k per pop drones. A gigantic multi million dollar target for a $300 DJI with a mortar charge zip tied to it… the entire western arms industry is a gigantic rent seeking grift to get costs as high as possible since that’s the only way of raise profits… Ukraine is the only nation aligned with the west that is focuses on building cheap effective weapons at scale.