US Trains Polish Special Forces to Operate in High-Drone-Activity Zones, Drawing on Ukraine War Experience

In Germany, Polish special forces are taking part in military exercises designed to teach them how to operate in areas where they could easily be detected by drones.

The Associated Press reports that the U.S. military developed the training program based on lessons learned from the war in Ukraine.

The special forces are practicing how to move through a 3,000-square-kilometer area controlled by a simulated enemy and how to carry out simulated strikes on key targets using drones.

According to the exercise scenario, the Polish troops must secretly move through the positions of U.S. soldiers playing the role of the enemy.

The U.S. troops also monitor reports from local residents to the police, which could help them detect and locate the Polish team.

The special forces must then travel about 100 kilometers across Germany to reach another training area in Grafenwöhr, where they are tasked with destroying a simulated target.

During the mission, the troops must avoid detection not only by military personnel but also by civilians. To do so, they move through villages and farms, where surveillance cameras are also in operation.

The U.S. military plans to conduct these exercises several times a year and expects special forces from more NATO countries to take part.

Meanwhile, the U.S. approach to developing counter-drone capabilities remains unclear.

Shortly before these exercises, the U.S. Army shut down a specialized unit in Europe that focused on studying warfare involving drones.

Despite this, the United States has been systematically studying the use of drones in Russia’s war against Ukraine for several years.

This work is carried out both by specialized units and by combat formations, which receive new drones and counter-drone systems to test during military exercises.

One of the key initiatives is the Transforming in Contact (TiC) program, under which the U.S. Army delivers new technologies directly to combat units for testing during deployments and training.

The 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division tested new drones, electronic warfare systems, command-and-control systems, and mobile platforms while deployed in Europe.

The brigade fielded more than 150 unmanned systems of various types, designed for a range of different missions.

Another initiative is the JIATF 401, a U.S. military interagency task force responsible for countering unmanned aircraft systems. Its main mission is to rapidly integrate advanced counter-drone technologies into military units.

JIATF 401 personnel are also studying the experience of Ukraine and European countries, where the widespread use of drones has become a routine part of modern warfare.