British soldiers are testing the tradeoffs of using drones, both in the air and on the ground – and the challenges that come with them.
During a recent US-led exercise in the Mojave Desertthousands of soldiers gathered to try out new technologies, including unmanned systems. British troops at the training experimented with which types of drones were best suited for specific tactics and missions, and shared what they wanted most from these systems.
Lessons from the exercise include how systems performed extreme heat and in rugged desert terrain, whether soldiers had enough drones for their missions amid electronic warfare and connectivity issues, and how drones can be most useful.
The British Army’s current experimental unit, the 2nd Battalion, The Yorkshire Regiment, attended the exercise alongside the unit that will take over their experimental role, the 1st Battalion Irish Guards. The latter unit also has experience with drones, including a recent exercise with Ukrainian forces. Business Insider was also present at the exercises.
Captain Wick Willett, a mortar platoon commander with the 1st Battalion Irish Guards, said he and his troops had seen the strengths and weaknesses of drones. “I think there are challenges with both air and ground vehicles,” Willett told Business Insider, adding that what helps solve these issues is “this robust testing that we’re going through right now.”
The British army is approaching testing drone systems through two different processes: experiments and trials. Trials are designed to test, try and test a drone to see if it does what the military wants it to do before purchasing it, Lt. Col. John Black, commander of the Yorkshire Regiment’s 2nd Battalion, told Business Insider. This includes security and integration testing.
Experiments are more focused on applying a system to specific use cases, such as ground robots to make frontline logistics easier or safer, or aerial drones for reconnaissance.
In drone experiments, British soldiers see how systems work in specific situations. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Nathan Arellano Tlaczani
Willett said he noticed the need for it unmanned ground vehicles to be more consumable, meaning troops could use, lose, or break them more flexibly without worrying about the cost or feasibility of replacement, “and to be consumable they must have a certain price per unit.”
Other soldiers expressed similar sentiments about ground robots, saying the systems sometimes feel too high-end to use effectively in tactical environments. Black said his experience came after testing dozens of UGVs was that the systems were often too expensive to be used and released in larger volumes.
Other problems with ground vehicles include driving over certain terrain, the impact of heat on systems and batteries, and the types of missions best suited, such as logistics runs and breaches that may be too dangerous for humans.
Willett said using ground robots can be more difficult than unmanned aerial vehicles, but “there are also similar challenges” with flying drones, including range, battery capacity and loiter time. Having enough UAVs to make them expendable is also a challenge.
“You have to have enough systems to be able to observe a certain area, for example, you have to have enough systems in your magazine that you can set one up and then, before it runs out, there is another one that takes over the role,” he added.
Keeping in mind the large number of drones used by both Ukraine and Russia, Western officials are considering the need for soldiers to have one large number of drones available to them.
A U.S. Army commander said earlier this year that, based on his unit’s experience, a brigade needed between 1,000 and 1,500 troops per week for a sustained combat operation. “We need drones on a large scale. We need to treat them like ammunition,” he said at the time.
