Sean Carberry
Three soldiers are sitting at a long table underneath a pair of rickety green awnings in danger of flying away in the biting wind. Small aerial and ground drones along with miscellaneous electronic components and 3D printed attachments are scattered across the table for senior officers from NATO nations to examine before a thunderous live fire exercise on the adjacent range in northeast Poland.
The 1st Squadron War Eagles of the U.S. Army’s 2nd Cavalry Regiment were showing off some of their experiments and innovations to address the increasing drone threat on the modern battlefield, Lt. Col. Matt Piosa, the squadron’s commander, explained in an interview.
“Our soldiers are observing trends on the battlefield. They’re then seeing where we have capability gaps, and they’re finding low-cost solutions to innovate,” he said. “So really, we’re going from battlefield observations to small-unit innovation. And we think that is about as close as you can get to transforming in contact without actually being in contact.”
“Transforming in contact” is the initiative launched by Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George whereby innovators, developers and testers are being pushed out into the field to assess changes to warfare — largely driven by the war in Ukraine — and develop solutions on the spot.
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