A drone warfareUS Army unit in Europe has been told to return to being a traditional infantry battalion. For more nearly a year, soldiers of the 173rd Airborne Brigade have been experimenting and building their own drones, as well as participating in drills on waging unmanned warfare after Ukraine pioneered such tactics in its yearslong conflict with Russia. In November, 600 soldiers formed a battalion that specialized in drone warfare and was set up to be used as a dedicated unit that could deploy anywhere drones were required.
Christopher LaNeve, the Army's acting chief of staff, has ordered the battalion to refocus on its core mission of being an airborne infantry unit, according to two U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal Army deliberations. The Wall Street Journal earlier reported the change. The move comes amid a broader reshuffling of the Army under LaNeve, who has been its top uniformed leader since Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth suddenly ousted Gen.
The decision also comes despite the Iran war showing the need for the U.S. to learn lessons about drone warfare from Ukraine. Iran has deployed its low-cost Shahed drones against ships and bases, killing U.S. troops, downing an Army helicopter and forcing the military to expend precious supplies of advanced interceptors. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in March that Ukrainian officials were helping five countries in the Middle East and Gulf region counter Iranian drone attacks, while the United States and European countries were among others that had requested support.
The overall 173rd Airborne Brigade, which is based in Italy and Germany, has been involved in drone warfare even before last November. In May 2025, the Army highlighted that soldiers from the brigade were designing and building their own attack drones in a new “first-person view (FPV) drone lab” at Caserma Del Din, Italy. Its commander at the time, Col.
Joshua Gaspard, said in an Army media post that his soldiers “see videos of FPV drones in Ukraine all over Instagram and the news media” and they were “excited to be using these systems.” The unit also dabbled in artificial intelligence, which Hegseth has been pushing, and designing drones resistant to jamming. An Army statement said the specialized drone unit will wrap up its experimentation following two major exercises in Germany this month and next, then “deliver what it learned there, together with the past year’s findings, to the Army to inform force design and future experimentation.” A third official, who, like the others, spoke on condition of anonymity to detail internal moves, noted the expectation was always that the exercises would be a “culminating event” for the drone battalion and that its future would then be reevaluated. During George’s tenure, most expected the unit to continue its work in drone warfare, the official said.
Integrating drones into the Army's tactics was a major focus for LaNeve's predecessor. George, alongside Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, last year rolled out what they called the Army Transformation Initiative, which pushed to add “modernized (unmanned aircraft systems) into formations.” George, who became Army chief of staff under President Joe Biden, regularly spoke about the need to accelerate development of new drone systems and get them in the hands of regular soldiers, not just specialized units. After George was ousted without explanation in April, LaNeve took his place.
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