Working with Ukrainian forces it convinced an elite British Army infantry battalion to switch to drones.

• An elite British battalion is reshaping its training after work with the Ukrainians.

• It built an obstacle course, added flight-hour targets, and opened a “drone hub.”

• Its commander said he underestimated how much his unit would learn from the Ukrainian military.

An elite British Army battalion is moving into drones after working closely with Ukrainian soldiers and seeing how central these systems have become in modern warfare.

The 1st Battalion of the Irish Guard now has 78 of its 300 members qualified as drone operators, its commanding officer, Lt. Col. Ben Irwin-Clarke, told Business Insider. The unit has big plans to increase its training and do more work with drones.

“That gives you an idea of ​​how important it is,” he said.

The battalion has built a training facility with drone warfare in mind, and its soldiers have invested so much, he said, that he’s had soldiers asking if they could go on weekends and put in some flight time.

“It’s just incredible to me. Soldiers asking to train more on the weekend tells us we must be doing something right, and it’s capturing the imagination of that generation,” Irwin-Clark said.

Ukraine has indicated that drones are part of the “future of warfare,” and that knowing how to use them in combat means soldiers “need to be experts.”

Western militaries, including Britain and the US, are closely studying drone warfare in Ukraine. The conflict has become the most drone-saturated in history, forcing militaries to rethink how they fight.

Some units are doing more than watching from a distance. The 1st Battalion of the Irish Guards was able to learn directly from Ukrainian soldiers during a UK-led training initiative known as Operation Interflex.

Although the operation is designed to train Ukrainian soldiers, the exchange has not been one-sided. Ukrainian troops – many with recent front-line experience – have shared hard-won lessons. Ukraine has more experience using drones than Western militaries.

Irwin-Clarke said his battalion was “learning from the rest of the army by picking up directly from the Ukrainians, who, in some cases, were coming directly to us from the front lines with the benefit of their knowledge.”

He said that when he first started working, he did not expect to learn so deeply and go in another direction. “I don’t think I would have anticipated a year ago when we started our tenure at Interflex how much we would learn.”

A battalion that embraces drones

The battalion has built an obstacle course so soldiers can train to fly the drones correctly. Irwin-Clark said he expects at least one module of each week’s training cycle to be related to drones.

Other battalion efforts include a recently built “Drone Hub,” where Soldiers can fix drones, conduct virtual training, and use 3D printing to make drone parts. Irwin-Clarke described it as “a novelty”, adding that “no other unit in the British Army has had one of these yet.”

The battalion printed its first drone body just last month. The aim is to eventually install a hub on the back of a vehicle so that its technology, such as 3D printing, can be accessible on the move and soldiers can build and maintain drones in the field. Irwin-Clark said the effort is “in its infancy.”

The use of 3D printing and simulators for drone training came directly from Ukrainian recommendations, Irwin-Clark said. These are exercises that the army of Ukraine considers necessary.

The battalion has copied other pieces of Ukrainian doctrine that Ukrainian soldiers have said about it, such as using anti-drone nets and seeing 60 hours as the minimum flight time generally required to be capable.

Irwin-Clark said the biggest shock to him was how quickly his soldiers were able to demonstrate drone skills. “What surprised me the most was how quickly people picked up on it.”

Read the original article on Business Insider