'Enemy' Unmanned Ground Vehicles Are Now Facing-Off Against Army Soldiers In Training
The unmanned vehicle made a helicopter landing zone unusable, which could happen during a real battle as adversaries field similar capabilities.
By Joseph Trevithick October 20, 2021
The War Zone
The U.S. Army says mock enemy troops, also known as the Opposing Force, or OPFOR, have employed unmanned ground vehicles in an exercise for the first time. The OPFOR used them to help deny access to possible helicopter landing zones and set up blocking positions along roads, among other tasks. This highlights the reality that American forces will only be increasingly likely as time goes on to encounter unmanned systems on the ground, as well as in the air, during future conflicts, especially high-end fights against potential near-peer adversaries, such as China or Russia.
The exercise in question took place at the Army's Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC) at Fort Polk in Louisiana in September. The JRTC's resident OPFOR unit is 1st Battalion (Airborne), 509th Infantry, which is also known by the nickname Geronimo. This battalion received two General Dynamics Land Systems (GLDS) unmanned Multi-Utility Tactical Transports (MUTT) to help it square off against soldiers from the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division.
US Army
A view through a night vision optic of one of the two MUTTs that 1st Battalion (Airborne), 509th Infantry used during an exercise at the Joint Readiness Training Center in September.
“With these units, the human survivability rate increases significantly,” Sergeant First Class Eugene Lackey, a soldier from Geronimo's Pathfinder Company, said about the exercise. “This system allowed us to close with and destroy the enemy safely from a distance. It [also enabled] us to the find the enemy before he could find us. It is a great tool and I wish we could have it for little bit longer to really see how we can change the way wars are fought.”
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/42799/army-soldiers-are-now-training-against-missile-toting-enemy-unmanned-ground-vehicles
