In the shifting landscape of warfare, Fort Rucker, Alabama, is working to adapt, and quickly — with the Army’s Aviation Center of Excellence recently launching its first Unmanned Advanced Lethality Course.
“This is the first time the Army has done this in a TRADOC setting, coordinating between three difference COEs,” Maj. Wolf Amacker, the chief of the AVCOE Directorate of Training and Doctrine UAS and Tactics Branch, said in an Army release. “We’re helping to train the most people, the quickest, on FPV systems that are having a real impact on the battlefield.
The first of its kind for the center, the course is designed to create a foundational standard for drone employment.
The focus, according to the release, will be on how small drones are used in reconnaissance, fires and maneuver operations.
At the center, students go back to basics and begin the course in the classroom. Logging 20 to 25 hours of simulator time, students learn how to utilize commercial drones and simulation software. From there, they transition to live flight exercises in a military urban terrain site.
In addition to the live flight exercises, Fires Center personnel teach students how to adjust fire using drone feeds.
“An 11B [infantryman], 13F [fire support specialist] out there with a SUAS calling for fire and adjusting based on drone video is a relevant skill for the current and future battlefield,” Amacker said. “This may be the first time our students are introduced and trained to do that.”
Twenty-eight students from various job specialties — including infantry, cavalry scouts, 15W and 15E aviation personnel and warrant officers from the 150U career field — were selected for the three-week course.
The kicker? The program was built from scratch just 90 days ago by Capt. Rachel Martin, who is now the course director.
Potential adoption of the course is being considered from both the Maneuver and Fires Centers of Excellence, with the overall goal of the course being to provide a unit a way to create their own basic qualification programs. Fort Rucker would then become the hub for advanced drone training.
The course is designed as both a resident program and eventually a mobile training package that will allow units ways to conduct FPV drone training independently.
According to the release, “the long-term vision for the course aligns with Fort Rucker’s broader innovation goals. Martin hopes to integrate the program with the post’s emerging innovation lab, creating a collaborative hub for data sharing and tactical experimentation.”
“This course is a catch-up,” said Martin. “We’re behind globally, and this is our aggressive attempt to close that gap.”
Todd South has written about crime, courts, government and the military for multiple publications since 2004 and was named a 2014 Pulitzer finalist for a co-written project on witness intimidation. Todd is a Marine veteran of the Iraq War.
