The growing threat of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs/Drones) on the battlefield has rapidly increased the need for counter-unmanned aircraft defence systems (C-UAS). The US Army faces a critical training and staffing dilemma in this new security environment: Should C-UAS defence be a general skill that every soldier should know, or should it be left to highly trained specialists? This debate reveals different views on how to optimise the army’s resources, training standards and combat effectiveness.
Special C-UAS Military Occupational Speciality (MOS) Defence
Writing in the Army Air Defence Artillery Journal, Captain Peter Clifton advocates the creation of a dedicated C-UAS Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) in this area. According to Clifton, special C-UAS MOSs would “focus on protecting manoeuvring units from enemy kinetic UAVs and ISR [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance].” This specialisation will allow friendly units to maintain freedom of manoeuvre on the battlefield and prevent enemy UAVs from detecting and reporting friendly positions.
“The joint CUAS course is often an afterthought to training and distracts soldiers from their primary MOS responsibilities,” Clifton said, adding that current C-UAS training is generic and inadequate. While manoeuvre forces already have anti-drone jammers and small arms that can be used for this purpose, assigning the C-UAS mission to regular personnel would result in “additional tasks being assigned to a unit member in an already over-tasked unit” and thus the unit would have fewer riflemen to combat enemy forces.
Lack of Standards in Education
The US Army’s own assessments also show that current C-UAS training needs improvement. A recent report by the Army’s Centre for Lessons Learned (CALL) revealed significant problems with exercises at the National Training Centre (NTC). “The current training environment almost always prioritises manoeuvre, intelligence and combined arms tactics, relegating C-UAS training to a secondary role where it is cast aside and forgotten,” the report warned. According to the report, troops serving in the NTC suffer from a lack of standardised tactical standard operating procedures, “enhanced” combat exercises and dedicated C-UAS planning and staffing.
Advantages and Challenges of Specialisation
A study by the Centre for Strategic and International Security (CSIS) suggests that a dedicated C-UAS MOS would have both advantages and challenges. The positive side is that specialists would better integrate counter-drone capabilities into manoeuvre forces and receive more focused training. However, challenges also exist: a dedicated MOS would require more time and resources and could lead to a “potentially slower response time as only authorised C-UAS operators can counter threats”.
Ironically, Clifton argues that a dedicated C-UAS career field could be used as a recruitment tool alongside its military benefits. noting that it could attract young people with “an aptitude for technology and video games”, he comments, “Candidates already predisposed to systems such as the Xbox controller will lower the learning curve and make their training faster and more cost-effective”. Ultimately, how the US Army strikes this balance will determine how effective it will be against the UAV threat in future conflicts.
