US Armored Brigade Suffers Shocking Defeat Against Drone Unit in Simulated Combat

In April and May, a simulated battle took place at a military training ground in Germany between a U.S. armored brigade, widely considered the pinnacle of conventional military power, and a Ukrainian drone unit.

As a result of the exercise, the U.S. military, which boasts military power so formidable it is often dubbed a country of a trillion dollars in defense spending, suffered a crushing defeat, being ruled completely wiped out by the Ukrainian forces.

The Wall Street Journal reported that this simulated battle was conducted as part of the "Combined Resolve" exercise.

Some 3,500 troops from the 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division of the U.S. Army were assigned the mission of attacking the defensive positions of the opposing forces (OPFOR), which were primarily manned by drone operators from the Ukrainian 412th Unmanned Systems Regiment, known as "Nemesis."

The U.S. military put its mainstays, the M1A2 Abrams tanks and M2 Bradley fighting vehicles, at the forefront.

Helicopters and drones supported the troops, who were equipped with anti-drone protection gear.

However, as Ukrainian reconnaissance drones captured the armored unit kicking up dust and charging forward, a barrage of attack drones immediately rained down.

This was followed by assaults from first-person view (FPV) kamikaze drones, where pilots searched for and attacked targets from a first-person perspective.

While the drones did not cause actual explosions, they secured "destroyed" rulings by hovering over target vehicles.

The vast majority of tanks and armored vehicles ruled destroyed were excluded from the exercise, leading to the total annihilation of the armored brigade.

A U.S. military official told the media that tanks were destroyed at such a rapid pace that training could not continue, forcing them to "resurrect" vehicles that had been ruled destroyed.

The Wall Street Journal pointed out that the exercise "showed how vulnerable U.S. armored units can be to drone attacks while on the move."

Indeed, the U.S. military has struggled with Iranian drone attacks in the Middle East.

Elliot Cohen of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a U.S. think tank, assessed that the event demonstrated how essential drones are in modern warfare and noted that the U.S. military has yet to fully master them.

The exercise is a combat-oriented drill conducted by the U.S. military in Europe with NATO allies and others, held twice a year in Germany to prepare for large-scale ground combat scenarios.

(Reported by Kim Minjeong | Video by Seo Byeong-wook | Graphics by Lee Su-min | Produced by SBS Digital News)

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