Though all new soldiers who join the Army now get basic drone familiarization in basic training, those who join the 15X MOS move on to the 15-week Advanced Individual Training in Arizona, where they learn to assemble, fix, and fly a variety of small, medium, and large drones:
They train to fly in contested environments, day and night, out in the woods, in a desert, and against an enemy opposition force.
They also train on many different kinds of drones.
“The Army has not bought a drone that the 15X is responsible for being an expert on. The Army’s bought a bunch of them,” he said. “For the first time ever, it’s not like ‘Hey, here is your rifle.’ It’s like, ‘Hey, I have 30 weapons that I need to make sure that you can shoot.’”
Because drone warfare is changing so rapidly, Gourgues and his instructors are still actively adjusting the course material for every class. The training focus for the new 15X soldiers is large, long-distance drones, but they also taught small systems like tactical FPV drones so they can be attached to infantry units, or even form drone-specific teams that sit behind front lines, akin to artillery soldiers.
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soldiers will be part of maneuver operations like infantry and armor units, but also more technical fields like military intelligence and cyber formations. The 15X soldiers have to work with drones of all sizes, which the Department of Defense classifies as groups 1, 2 and 3 unmanned aerial systems, or UASs. But the priority is group 3, the largest-sized drones, he said.
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In total, the Army is planning for between 2-to-3,000 15x soldiers who will fly, fix, and deploy all sizes of drones.
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Gourgues said the decision to keep drone programs within the Army’s aviation branch comes from the “sheer complexity” of operating the military’s bigger and longer-range UAS platforms like the Shadow and Gray Eagle. Since those larger systems fly in the same airspace as jets and helicopters, drone operators need to have the same expertise in air traffic control, weather, flight regulations, and other air safety measures for complex military operations, he said.
The Russians have already set up a separate combat arm for drones.