Ukrainian troops taught the British Army that it takes at least 60 hours of work to become a decent drone pilot

• Ukrainian soldiers have advised an elite British unit on how to train troops for drone warfare.

• They said it takes about 60 hours of flying to reach proficiency.

• They recommended that pilots should start in a simulator. The US Army also uses one at the recommendation of Ukraine.

Ukrainian troops He taught the British Army What needs to be done to speed up soldiers’ drone flight. Sixty hours is generally the minimum requirement for pilot qualification, a senior British official said.

Lt. Col. Ben Irwin-Clark, commander of the 1st Battalion of the Irish Guards, an elite infantry regiment of the British Army, told Business Insider that Ukrainians say a good pilot needs at least 30 hours in a simulator and 30 hours in training. real flight in the field.

In about 60 hours, “they became pretty proficient at flying different types of drones,” he said. After that, recovery comes with repetition and exposure to more systems. “It’s an upward curve in terms of how much better they can get,” he said. It takes practice.

The battalion learned these lessons He was helping train Ukrainian troops to fight against Russian occupation. Unit deployed Operation Interflex supportA British-led effort with 13 countries to train Ukrainian soldiers in Western and NATO-style warfare.

Like Western powers train Ukrainian soldiersUkrainian soldiers with front-line experience are also sharing lessons with their international partners, especially in areas where NATO militaries have had limited recent combat experience, such as small drone operations.

The US Army is also learning the value of simulators in drone training from Ukraine. The Unmanned Advanced Lethality Course at Fort Rucker, Alabama, designed to help the service catch up on drone warfare, uses simulated flight training before soldiers switch to live drones, Maj. Wolf Amacker, chief of the Unmanned Aircraft Systems and Tactics Branch at the Army’s Aviation Center of Excellence, told Business Insider.

Western militaries have much deeper institutional expertise in many types of warfare, but they have not fought a war like Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a large-scale, technology- and drone-saturated industrial conflict. They fought heavy artillery battles and engaged in trench warfare, but decades passed. Ukrainian soldiers who have undergone Western training generally have more recent experience.

Especially when it comes to small unmanned aerial vehicles, Ukraine has tremendous experience, much more than its partners. Drones have been used more in this war than in any previous conflict, and Western partners are keen to learn from this.

Irwin-Clark said Ukraine’s struggle is what drives his battalion to go all-in on drones, calling them part of the “future of warfare.”

Of the battalion’s 300 members, 78 are currently pilots or instructors. The unit built a “drone center” where soldiers can build and repair drones and train on them. “No unit in the British Army has one of these yet,” said Irwin-Clark, describing it as the first of its kind in the British Army.

When it comes to learning about drone warfare, he added, “I’m surprised at how quickly people pick up on it.”

The battalion also made other changes based on Ukrainian recommendations, including adding anti-drone nets to training and using 3D printing to produce drone parts quickly and cheaply.

Other Western militaries are seeking similar guidance. Poland and Norway turned to Ukraine for help training operators, while Ukrainian experts went to Denmark to participate in anti-drone exercises.

Ukrainian drone schools Combat training operators have previously told Business Insider that their instructions are based almost entirely on Ukraine’s battlefield experience, not lessons learned from Western partners, reflecting how far the country is ahead of its allies in practical drone warfare knowledge.

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