Military Review: Ukrainian drone unit hit U.S. tank brigade hard in drills

Ukrainian drone operators playing the enemy in a U.S. Army training exercise in Germany caused about 70% of an American armored brigade’s casualties in the first three days, according to an account by the brigade’s own commander and staff.

The figures come from an article in Military Review, the U.S. Army’s professional journal, written by Col. Michael Ziegelhofer, commander of the 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, known as “Greywolf,” and six of his officers. They describe Combined Resolve 26-07, held in spring 2026 at the Hohenfels Training Area in Bavaria, where the brigade fought an opposing force reinforced by a detachment from the 412th Regiment of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces, a unit known as “Nemesis.”

Enemy drones either struck Greywolf’s troops directly or spotted for artillery that did. Over the roughly 10-day rotation, the opposing force initiated contact with drones more than 750 times. By the end of the third day, the share of casualties caused by drones had fallen below 30%, and the authors say the enemy had not eased off.

The authors estimate that roughly 60% of the counter-drone fight at brigade level is fieldcraft and drills. They said only the heavy simulated losses of the first days forced soldiers to apply what they had practiced. Survival came at a price: crews switched off Blue Force Tracker, cut radio use and even dropped Starshield satellite links to shrink their electronic signature, and resupplying the brigade took twice as long as planned because the enemy hunted its supply lines.

Greywolf also had drones of its own. For the offensive phase, it brought in the 3rd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, then an experimental drone battalion, and employed more than 700 drones from platoon to brigade level.

That abundance initially swamped the brigade headquarters. Collection planning tools built for a handful of sensors broke down, the operations floor struggled to absorb the flood of reports, and an airspace system that opened and closed individual blocks for each drone could not keep up. The staff never had a complete picture of how many drones were in the air.

A company commander in the brigade, writing in Task & Purpose, described Nemesis drones already overhead as his company drove through the only gate into the training area.

“They showed us ways to effectively fly cheap drones incredible distances. They put on a masterclass in sensor-to-shooter kill chain management and speed using tactics, techniques, and technology that we can now use in our formations,” wrote Allan Watson.

Ukrainian units and equipment have become a regular feature of U.S. Army training in Europe this year.

...It seems that NATO has encountered qualitatively new combat conditions, and it has left them quite perplexed.

Evidently, NATO armies are currently ill-prepared for the new type of warfare — a war with decisive role of drones.

And yet, there are those in Europe who still want to fight with Russia, when they suffer defeat even at the hands of the Ukrainians. Europeans are strange people indeed...

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