The Army must adapt and update its small-unmanned aircraft systems training to effectively compete on today’s battlefield, according to a report from the Rand Corp.

“The … Army must work with the DoD and the [Federal Aviation Administration] to create a training ecosystem that supports greatly expanded integration of SUAS in combat operations,” the report says. “The Army needs to think of SUAS as part of a battlefield of systems that include platforms, operators, airspace management, communication networks … and kill chains that all need to be trained to operate together.”

The report used interviews and data from the Army’s combat training centers and training support functions across four installations to come to its findings.

Soldiers looking to train with SUAS were met with “significant imposed constraints,” including limitations from range regulations and Army policy constraints, the report found.

Often, brigade combat teams were exposed to threat UAS for the first time at combat training centers, and they “are inadequately trained or not trained at all on almost all collective” small-unmanned aircraft systems tasks, the report found during a February 2023 interview with National Training Center staff at Fort Irwin, California.

Further, units don’t have enough people who can employ more advanced SUAS tactics, according to the report. “The Army of 2023 has too few expert operators, airspace management technicians, commanders and staff who can plan and execute operations using SUAS, and trainers—the essential ‘doers’ that execute advanced SUAS employment in combined arms operations,” according to the report.

Amid “widespread shortages” of schoolhouse-certified master trainers at the battalion and brigade levels in XVIII Airborne Corps units, producing master trainers at scale is “critical,” the report says. “Without enough master trainers, the unit production pipeline of certifying individual operators and maintaining their currency falls behind in a negative reinforcement loop that increases the burden on the few master trainers in the unit,” according to the report. 

The Army will need to make several changes to train UAS and counter-UAS capabilities more effectively.

“If the Army remains committed to training as it expects to fight, its current processes and training support capabilities for integrating SUAS into realistic training are inadequate,” the report found. “While the Army recognizes this challenge, it must make adjustments across doctrine, organization, training, materiel, leadership and education, personnel, facilities and policy to accommodate future SUAS demands.”

Read the full report here.