As new gear flows to Army units, experiments reveal risks and rewards

The soldiers of the 25th Infantry Division are getting their hands on new technology faster than ever and learning lessons about the risks and rewards of drone warfare under a new Army fielding program, the division’s commander said. 

Under the new fielding strategy, dubbed “transforming in contact,” the Army is distributing new gear to select units for experimentation and evaluation during realistic training scenarios and on deployment. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George has said fielding will include drone, electronic warfare, and network capabilities. 

The effort has seen new equipment fielded within “a matter of months from when a [fielding] decision was made,” Maj. Gen. Marcus Evans said during a media roundtable Friday.

“It was the shortest amount of time that I have ever experienced [for] having equipment show up,” Evans said. “The majority of the [equipment] have already been fielded to the soldiers.” 

The Hawaii-based division’s 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team recently used the “majority” of the new equipment in a combined arms live-fire exercise, Evans said. 

Using small drones helps units increase their battlefield awareness, Evans said. 

“We have a small unmanned aerial system in the hands of squad leaders that can see three to five kilometers from their current position, which allows them to understand the battlefield better,” he said.  

Using drones also meant that battalions didn’t have to rely as much on high-level surveillance assets, he said. 

Still, drones pose their own challenges, he said. For one, soldiers must now make sure helicopters and drones don’t collide. 

“Before you bring in a helicopter to a landing zone, you now have to make sure that that airspace has been cleared from the small unmanned aerial systems that maybe have been performing a reconnaissance task,” he said. 

Soldiers must also get used to counter-drone warfare, he said, especially identifying the presence of enemy drones. “It is very challenging in today's environment to hide, and so, the sooner you can identify the threat that is intended to come at you and your formations, the better able you are to position yourself to mitigate that threat,” he said. 

The division is also fielding new, lighter-weight body armor and helmets that will be better for the jungles of the Pacific, said Command Sgt. Maj. Shaun Curry, the 25th ID’s top non-commissioned officer. The armor reduces soldiers' load by 20 percent, he said. 

Soldiers also are experimenting with the Army’s STEED military cart, an electric wheel-barrow-type transport, he added. Referring to the STEED, Curry said soldiers have “gotten it to a point where you can now carry a company's communications equipment for mission command” as well as carry mortar systems. “Now we can go much further and much faster,” he said. 

The division will soon turn its focus to generating power, Curry said, which is “always a limiting factor” for light brigades. 

Additionally, Evans said, the division’s new Infantry Squad Vehicles, or ISV, are making units harder to hit by giving soldiers the ability to quickly disperse. The ISV is a light utility vehicle that the Army moved to full-rate production in March. 

Before the ISV, the Army could only use helicopters or trucks to move troops rapidly. However, Both methods posed a “sustainment challenge” in terms of fuel, and were highly visible, Evans said. 

With the ISVs, the Army can move soldiers across multiple routes, “near simultaneously,” he said. “It presents a challenge for our adversaries because it's a dispersed formation,” he said. 

The ISVs can move formations up to the battalion-level size out to over 180 miles, he added.