Working with Ukrainian troops convinced this elite British Army infantry battalion to go all in on drones

• An elite British battalion is reinventing its training after working with Ukrainians.

• It built an obstacle course, increased flight hour goals and opened a “drone center.”

• The unit commander said he underestimated what his troops would learn from Ukrainian forces.

An elite battalion of the British Army is working hard to develop drones after working closely with Ukrainian soldiers and understanding the importance of these systems in modern warfare.

Lieutenant Colonel Ben Irwin-Clark, commander of the 1st Battalion of the Irish Guards, told Business Insider that 78 of the battalion’s 300 members are currently qualified as drone operators. The force has ambitious plans to further enhance drone training and cooperation.

“It just goes to show you how important this is,” he said.

He said the battalion has established a training facility for drone operations and that its soldiers have invested heavily in it, adding that some soldiers have asked if they could go in on the weekends and log some flight time.

“It was absolutely unbelievable to me,” Owen-Clark said. “The Soldiers asking for extra training on the weekends told me we had to do something right, and it captured the imagination of that generation.”

He said Ukraine had shown that drones were part of “future warfare,” meaning soldiers “need to become experts” on how to use drones in combat.

Western militaries, including Britain and the United States, are closely studying drone warfare in Ukraine. The conflict has become the most heavily used by drones in history, forcing militaries to rethink the way they fight.

Some units do more than just watch from afar, though. The 1st Battalion of the Irish Guards was able to learn directly from Ukrainian soldiers during a British-led training program called Operation Interflex.

While the purpose of the operation was to train Ukrainian soldiers, the exchange was not one-way. Ukrainian troops – many of whom have recent frontline experience – shared hard-won lessons. Ukraine has far more experience with large-scale use of drones than Western militaries.

Owen-Clark said his battalion “is learning lessons learned on behalf of the rest of the Army, directly from the Ukrainians, who in some cases are coming to us directly from the front lines, passing on the benefits of their knowledge to us.”

He said that when the job first started, he did not expect that the learning would go so deep in another direction. “I think when we started working at Interflex over a year ago, I didn’t anticipate that we would learn so much.”

A battalion embraces drones

The battalion built obstacle courses so soldiers could train on how to accurately fly drones. Owen-Clark said he expects at least one module in each weekly training cycle to be drone-related.

Other efforts at the battalion include the recently established “Drone Center,” where soldiers can repair drones, conduct virtual training and use 3D printing to manufacture drone parts. Owen-Clarke described it as “a new thing” and said “no other unit in the British Army has such equipment”.

The battalion just last month printed its first drone fuselage. The goal is to eventually create hubs in the rear of vehicles so that technologies like 3D printing can be used on the move and soldiers can build and repair drones in the field. Owen-Clark said the effort is “still in its infancy.”

Owen-Clark said the use of 3D printing and drone training simulators came directly from Ukrainian proposals. The Ukrainian military considers these practices critical.

The battalion also copied other Ukrainian doctrine told by Ukrainian soldiers, such as the use of counter-drone nets and considering 60 hours as the minimum flight time generally required to be competent.

Owen-Clark said the biggest shock to him was how quickly his soldiers were able to demonstrate their drone skills. “What surprised me the most was how quickly people embraced it.”

Read the original article on Business Insider