Trump Says Drones Aren't The Future of Warfare - Disbands US Army Drone Unit

He says the military needs to build more $4 million a piece missiles 
(complete with microwave oven and luxury audio package) and make sure our 
troops are mean by checking their Testosterone levels every Tuesday.


Army plans to phase out drone unit championed by sacked generals
by Filip Timotija - 08/20/26 7:05 PM ET
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The U. S. Army plans to phase out a drone unit that was studying and 
incorporating lessons from foreign wars, including the use of uncrewed 
systems in the Russia-Ukraine war, an Army official confirmed to The Hill 
on Thursday.

The infantry battalion, known as the Unmanned Assault Battalion, will 
participate at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center this month and next 
month in Germany. After the exercises, the battalion will "refocus on its 
core warfighting tasks as an airborne infantry battalion assigned to a 
Mobile Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), " the official said.

The unit is part of the 173rd Airborne Brigade, a quick-reaction light 
infantry brigade team stationed in Vicenza, Italy. It was championed by 
former Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George, who was ousted by Defense 
Secretary Pete Hegseth earlier this year.

The U. S. Army Europe and Africa, with the backing of the Army and U. S. 
European Command, tasked the infantry battalion to "prototype an employment 
concept for a tactical unmanned systems battalion, " the official said.

The unit was also championed by Gen. Chris Donahue, the former commander of 
U. S. Army Europe and Africa, whose July removal by Hegseth divided 
Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

The Army did not respond to The Hill's request for comment.

The decision to gradually eliminate the unit was criticized by military 
experts, who point to Ukraine as a real-world "battle lab" to learn how 
drones are changing modern warfare, with the most experienced drone 
operators in the world, who are constantly learning and adapting amid 
Russian attacks.

"The U. S. is behind in adopting and fielding small drones. While the 
Pentagon is planning a massive investment in small drones, procurement is 
not enough to close this gap. There is a risk that the U. S. Army invests 
in the wrong types of drones or obsolete technology and doesn't learn how 
to employ them in an effective fashion on a highly contested battlefield, 
" Stacie Pettyjohn, a senior fellow and director of the defense program at 
the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), told The Hill on Thursday.

"The experience of a recent exercise in Europe ... in which the Ukrainians 
beat U. S. Army forces, shows that the U. S. has a lot to learn, " added 
Pettyjohn, a U. S. defense strategy expert. "The Pentagon should be taking 
every opportunity to learn from the Ukraine war. The Russians, Chinese and 
North Koreans certainly are. "

Cameron McMillan — a former counter-rocket, artillery and mortar battle 
captain in Iraq — called the phaseout one of "several puzzling steps" by 
the service branch in recent months, also pointing to "transferring or 
withdrawing units and commands suited for large-scale ground combat in 
Europe to theaters where they are less needed. "

"As the Iran war has demonstrated, the U. S. Army has a significant gap in 
drone defense capability, capacity and doctrine. In the Middle East, that 
challenge is largely defending static bases against long-range one-way-
attack ... drones. But in Europe, the counterdrone challenge is much 
greater" and includes defending against smaller first-person view drones, 
McMillan, now a senior research analyst at the Center on Military and 
Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told The Hill 
on Thursday.

"This drone unit was designed to incorporate and apply desperately needed 
lessons learned from Ukraine to help the U. S. Army adapt to this 
challenge. "

The unit's planned phaseout was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Since the start of the U. S. war against Iran in late February, the 
importance of drone warfare in modern conflicts was highlighted as Iran was 
launching scores of one-way attack drones, targeting U. S. bases in the 
Persian Gulf region.

Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and George launched the so-called Army 
Transformation Initiative last year, which was set to focus on three 
pillars: "deliver critical warfighting capabilities, optimize our force 
structure and eliminate waste and obsolete programs. "

"We will introduce long-range missiles and modernized UAS into formations, 
field the M1E3 tank, develop the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft, and 
close the C-sUAS capability gap. Command and control nodes will integrate 
Artificial Intelligence to accelerate decision-making and preserve the 
initiative, " Driscoll and George said in the May 1, 2025, release.

Driscoll lauded Ukraine's integrated drone operating system in May during 
his appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee, stating it 
"fully integrates every single drone, every sensor, and every shooting 
platform into just one single network. Ours does not. "

Driscoll and Hegseth have engaged in a turf war throughout President 
Trump's second term, which has at times flared into the public, with the 
Pentagon chief increasingly imposing his will on the Army.