CAMP SMITH TRAINING SITE, New York— Eight New York Army National Guard officers and non-commissioned officers completed a unique weekend course on April 30, designed to teach them how to use, or defend against, small drones on the battlefield.
What the Army officially calls small, unmanned aircraft systems, or SUAS, are a hot topic right now, according to Sgt. 1st Class Masami Yamakado, a master trainer on the use of the remotely-controlled mini planes.
“You can go online or on social media and within minutes see that this stuff is all over the battlefield right now,” Yamakado said.
“The introduction of SUAS to the modern battlefield is as significant as the introduction of large-scale use of machine guns in World War I,” he added.
To teach the use of these systems effectively, New York’s 106th Regional Training Institute introduced what is officially called the SUAS Planner’s Course taught at the National Guard’s Camp Smith Training Site, near Peekskill.
The class delivered what was promised, said Capt. Annmarie Allen, the intelligence officer for the 501st Explosive Ordnance Disposal Battalion.
“I think it gave us a little bit of everything that the leadership needs to know,” she said.
“Knowing what these aircraft can and cannot do is important for staff officers and NCOs,” Allen said.
Sgt. 1st Class Michael Barker, operations NCO for the 2nd Battalion, 108th Infantry Regiment, another class participant, agreed with Allen.
“I learned a lot about the capabilities of our SUAS as well as the enemy’s that I was not aware of,” he said. “This allows me to advise the commander at a different level.”
“I think this is something the Army is behind on, and this subject definitely should be incorporated into training,” Barker said.
“We, as infantrymen, and generally as Soldiers, even at the highest levels, don’t understand all the capability we have at our disposal. This brings some clarity to that, as far as our SUAS and the enemies,” Barker said.
According to Col. Jeffrey Csoka, the commander of the 106th RTI, it’s the only course designed for company and battalion leaders on how to employ SUAS within the Army.
The Army has good systems, but the doctrine and formal training on how to use them just isn’t there right now at the tactical level, Csoka said.
Yamakado was tapped to take the lead in creating the course.
He already teaches a 10-day Army-approved course for RQ—11B Raven operators and wrote a paper on the importance of SUAS on the battlefield. This paper is used to train field grade officers at the Mission Command Center of Excellence at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
While the course discusses several unmanned aircraft systems, the focus was on employing the RQ-11B Raven SUAS.
“This system is widely available within the Army inventory and is the aircraft that company, and battalion staffs will likely have access to,” Yamakado said.
The goal was to tailor the class to what the eight students needed to know in their jobs, he explained. The students—three officers and five NCOS—had backgrounds in military intelligence, artillery, logistics and infantry.
The first day of instruction discussed until level small aircraft use, focused primarily on the Raven, although other SUAS were discussed as well.
The Raven SUAS is battery powered and hand launched with a speed of about 30 miles an hour. It has a range of 10 kilometers and flies for 60 to 90 minutes on a full charge.
The Raven SUAS provides full-motion video in color or infrared, high-definition photography, 10-digit grid coordinates of targets and even limited infrared illumination at night.
Each New York Army National Guard infantry company gets one Raven system, consisting of three aircraft, two ground control stations and associated equipment.
During the second day, with the assistance of military intelligence experts, the course covered staff planning and executing SUAS missions in the most effective way.
There was also a lot of discussion on countering enemy SUAS operations, since this is a real concern for headquarters, logistics and artillery operations behind the front lines, Yamakado said.
Because the National Guard also has a domestic operations responsibility, they also discussed how SUAS have been used here at home, he added.
As an intelligence officer, learning more about the systems that collect intelligence is useful, Allen said. And she sees ways these systems can be incorporated into EOD missions, she added.
For example, while an EOD team is working on a device, a Raven or other SUAS could be working overhead, ensuring the team is not attacked, Allen said.
Learning about the kind of systems being developed was impressive, Barker said.
Yamakado and the other instructors knew their stuff and shared “their wealth of knowledge, and their expertise, and their joy in what they do,” he added.
The 106th Regiment is uniquely suited to offer this class, Yamakado said.
Some instructors have Federal Aviation Administration drone licenses and others fly them professionally in civilian law enforcement.
Several instructors attended the Army’s Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems academy at Yuma Proving Grounds, Arizona, and one instructor served at the SUAS Master Trainer school at the Maneuver Center of Excellence in Fort Benning, Georgia, he said.
“Our school teaches SUAS not as a system, but as a weapon,” Yamakado said. “We make it a point to discuss tactical applications, employment and survivability.”
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