Interview: 173rd Airborne Brigade Tests FPV Drones Against Moving Targets During Swift Response 2025

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Video by Capt. Jennifer French

173rd Airborne Brigade

May 17, 2025 | 2:09

U.S. Army 1st Lt. Francesco La Torre, director of effects for the Bayonet Innovation Team, discusses first-person view (FPV) drone training during Swift Response 2025 at Pabrade Training Area, Lithuania, May 18, 2025. The 173rd Airborne Brigade is testing purpose-built, retrievable FPV drones against autonomous moving targets to improve battlefield readiness and integration with armored units.

The 173rd Airborne Brigade is the U.S. Army's Contingency Response Force in Europe, providing rapidly deployable forces to the United States European, African, and Central Command areas of responsibility. Forward deployed across Italy and Germany, the brigade routinely trains alongside NATO allies and partners to build partnerships and strengthen the alliance.

RAW SOUND BITES BELOW:
1st Lt. Francesco La Torre, Bayonet Innovation Team Director of Effects

“Today we are doing an FPV live fire,” La Torre said. “Today is a static engagement. Tomorrow we’ll do a dynamic engagement on a moving target. These targets are provided by Marathon Targets so it’s an autonomous vehicle about the size of an SUV and it has two occupants inside. We are going to be engaging it with our purpose-built retrievable system—that’s the “Sky Raider” FPV drone that is made and assembled by 173rd Sky Soldiers. The arming device on the system is provided by DEVCOM Armaments Center—thanks from Project Shank.”

“We build our own drones because that enables us to have a needs-based approached to procurement,” La Torre said. “We can very quickly design our own capabilities and meet the needs of commanders and field capability gaps all the way down to the lowest level.”

“We’re blowing up drones today because we don’t do it enough,” La Torre said. “Over 60% of all engagements in the Ukraine-Russia war are done with FPV drones and right now, the U.S. Army needs to just get more reps at blowing up FPV drones. That’s what we’re doing out here.”

“I think this training is great,” La Torre said. “Not only are the operators getting a rep at ariel navigation and target identification over a 2-kilometer range, but they’re also engaging static and moving targets. It’s a very dynamic situation. The training is very realistic. We’re also meshed in with an adjacent unit—3ID—so Charlie Company, 3rd Battalion, 69th Armor Regiment (3–69 AR) is here supporting us with their Bradelys so Sky Soldiers are getting a chance to integrate with other units.”

“I just would like to add that any brigade can do this training if they’re willing to put in the work,” La Torre said. “It takes a little bit of work to get to the point where you have your own UAS platforms and a little more work to arm them but it is possible and I think that in the near future, most brigades will end up doing this training very frequently.”

(U.S. Army video by Capt. Jennifer French)