U.S. News: Army Phasing Out New Drone Unit --- Gen. LaNeve takes aim at cutting-edge battalion in a 'back to basics' approach

“The Army took a major step to prepare for wars of the future in January when it established a new battalion in Europe to master the art of fighting with drones and ground robots.

 

The idea was to learn the lessons of the conflict in Ukraine that has been raging on NATO's doorstep and develop cutting-edge military systems and tactics to counter the Russian threat.

 

But the much-touted drone assault battalion is being phased out. After participating in a major exercise in Germany in August and September, the unit will report its findings to the Army to guide future experimentation, shed its drone assault role, and "refocus on its core warfighting tasks as an airborne infantry battalion," an Army official told The Wall Street Journal in a statement.

 

The elimination of a futuristic drone battalion is part of a broader "back to basics" approach ordered up by Gen. Christopher LaNeve, the acting chief of staff of the Army who is closely aligned with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The battalion was a signature initiative of LaNeve's predecessor, Gen. Randy George, whom Hegseth ousted in April.

 

The decision to wind down the drone assault unit is drawing criticism from several military experts who say it will slow down the Army's push to excel in the kind of drone warfare that has transformed the battlefield in Ukraine and the Middle East.

 

"Ukraine has essentially revolutionized the close fight," said Michael O'Hanlon, a defense expert at the Brookings Institution in Washington. "Gen. George was starting to get that, and any setback in what he was doing would be deeply regretful and dangerous."

 

The Army didn't say how it plans to speed the service's abilities in drone warfare after the drone assault battalion is phased out.

 

A spokesman for the Army said the service "is committed to accelerating U.S. military drone dominance to meet the demands of large-scale combat operations," but declined to comment on future plans.

 

"We rigorously test a wide variety of unmanned and counter-unmanned technologies in the field. Ultimately, these aerial systems are enablers that support our soldiers," the spokesman said.

 

A spokesman for LaNeve declined to comment.

 

In a memo to the force Wednesday, LaNeve outlined his plans for the direction of the service.

 

"U.S. Army forces must be prepared to overcome the most complex challenges our adversaries can impose and master an operational environment that looks fundamentally different from the battlefields of yesterday," LaNeve wrote in the memo, which was obtained by the Journal.

 

In an attached document viewed by the Journal, LaNeve vowed the Army would continue to change and establish units with advanced cyber, electronic warfare and artificial intelligence technologies.

 

Since George's ouster, Hegseth has thrown his support behind LaNeve, who served as his senior military aide in 2025 before assuming the role of Army vice chief in February. But the prospect of LaNeve serving as Army chief of staff has run into Republican as well as Democratic congressional opposition, the Journal reported.

 

LaNeve's temporary status hasn't precluded the four-star from putting his stamp on the Army. Legal experts say LaNeve can serve indefinitely in an acting capacity because he is confirmed as the Army's vice chief.

 

Since LaNeve assumed the helm, the Army made a series of decisions that go beyond drones. Some of LaNeve's most significant decisions have affected the U.S. military posture in Europe, where American combat brigades have already been reduced under President Trump.

 

Under LaNeve, the Army is moving a "Multi-domain Task Force" from Europe to South Korea, Army officials said. That specialized unit integrates cyber, intelligence and modern warfighting systems and has been an important component of the Army's military capabilities on the continent. LaNeve has also reassigned the Fort Hood-based III Armored Corps, which had been focused on bolstering Army forces in Europe, to the new Western Hemisphere Command.

 

Some of LaNeve's orders have caused friction with Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, who worked closely with George. Driscoll and Hegseth have been at odds for months over the dismissal of senior Army leaders, changes to the service and other issues, the Journal has reported.

 

LaNeve and Driscoll clashed this summer over LaNeve's effort to rewrite the Army's physical fitness standards, U.S. officials said. Under LaNeve's direction, the service replaced traditional height to weight tables and circumference-based tape tests with a "waist-to-height ratio" of less than 0.55 as its new body composition standard.

 

Driscoll pushed to keep a performance exemption for soldiers who score highly on the Army Fitness Test, arguing that under the new system stocky but strong soldiers would be unfairly punished. But LaNeve dug in his heels and a performance exemption was excluded, U.S. officials said. (Exemptions for pregnant and postpartum soldiers remain in effect, according to Army officials.)

 

More recently, the Army canceled plans to have senior Ukrainian officers speak at the service's center for maneuver warfare at Fort Benning in Georgia, U.S. officials said.

 

Retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, who served in the first and second Trump administrations, praised the general. "LaNeve is hard over pushing standards. That is his strength. He is uncompromising for the good of the force," said Kellogg, who recommended LaNeve to Hegseth.

 

The establishment of the Army drone unit followed an intensive effort by Army leaders to mine the lessons of events in Ukraine. George, Driscoll and Gen. Chris Donahue, then the top Army commander in Europe, traveled to Kyiv last November to meet with Ukrainian drone commanders.

 

George had already moved to transform Army infantry brigades into maneuver forces that had units equipped with reconnaissance and strike drones. But in an age of drone and ground robotic warfare, George's concern was that the service needed to go bigger and faster. Both Russia and Ukraine have drone combat units and military branches dedicated to drone and robotic warfare.

 

That November, the Army decided to establish a "tactical unmanned systems battalion" that would study the lessons from Ukraine and develop new concepts for fighting with drones and robots in support of a larger Army brigade combat team, the Army official said in his statement. The battalion, with around 600 soldiers, was formally established in January, using troops from the 173rd Airborne Brigade.” [1]

 

Why keep drone units when they don’t have drones? USA military has no possibility to scale drones, since they don’t have sufficient access to, for example, drone motors with rare earths. China is not sharing that. USA are trying to fix that, however there is a difference between trying to get, and having it.

 

1. U.S. News: Army Phasing Out New Drone Unit --- Gen. LaNeve takes aim at cutting-edge battalion in a 'back to basics' approach. Gordon, Michael R; Seligman, Lara.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 20