Working with Ukrainian troops convinced this elite British Army infantry battalion to go all in on drones

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

• He built an obstacle course, added flight hour goals and opened a “drone center.”

• His commander said he underestimated how much his unit would learn from Ukrainian troops.

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

Lieutenant Colonel Ben Irwin-Clark, commander of the 1st Battalion of the Irish Guards, told Business Insider that 78 of its 300 members qualify as drone operators. The unit has big plans to increase its training and do more work with drones.

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

There is a battalion We established a training facility He said soldiers are heavily invested in considering drone warfare and shared that his soldiers are asking if they can come in on weekends and log some flying hours.

“This is absolutely incredible to me. Soldiers wanting to do extra training on the weekend tells me we have to do something right, and that captures the imagination of that generation,” Irwin-Clark said.

Ukraine has shown that drones are part of the “future of warfare,” which means knowing how to use them in combat is something soldiers “must master,” he said.

Western militaries, including the UK and the US, are studying this issue. Drone war in Ukraine closely. The conflict has become the most drone-intensive in history, forcing militaries to rethink how they fight.

But some units do more than just monitor from a distance. The 1st Battalion of the Irish Guards succeeded learn directly from Ukrainian soldiers During a UK-led education initiative Operation Interflex.

While the operation is being designed Training Ukrainian soldiersThe change was not one-way. Ukrainian troops, many of whom had recent front-line experience, shared hard-won lessons. There are many more in Ukraine experience using drone On a larger scale than Western armies.

Irwin-Clark said his battalion “learned lessons for the rest of the army, in some cases directly from the Ukrainians who came to us from the front lines and benefited from their knowledge.”

He said he didn’t expect learning to move so deeply in the other direction when the study first started. “I guess I didn’t realize how much we would learn when we started working at Interflex a year ago.”

A battalion embracing drones

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

The battalion’s other efforts include the recently built “drone center,” a center where soldiers can repair drones, do virtual training and use 3D printing to make drone parts. Irwin-Clark described it as “something new” and shared that “no other unit in the British Army has one of these yet.”

The battalion printed its first drone fuselage last month. The goal is to eventually set up a hub in the back of a vehicle, so technologies like 3D printing can be accessed on the go and allow soldiers to build and repair drones in the field. The effort is “in its infancy,” Irwin-Clark said.

Irwin-Clark said the use of simulators for 3D printing and drone training came directly from Ukraine’s recommendations. These are practices that the Ukrainian army deems necessary.

The battalion also copied other pieces of Ukrainian doctrine described by Ukrainian soldiers, such as using anti-drone networks and generally considering 60 hours as the minimum flight time required to become proficient.

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

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