Oklahoma Counter-Drone School Opens for New Army Recruits

The U.S. Army’s Center for Initial Military Training has opened the Joint Counter Small Unmanned Aerial Systems University at Fort Sill in Oklahoma to provide new recruits with basic training on skills to identify and counter small drone threats, service officials said.

Maj. Gen. Sean Gainey, Joint Counter-Small Unmanned Aerial Systems Office director, said the boot camp training reflects the division integration of air defense battalions, with the Army’s focus shifting to large-scale combat. According to Gainey, a speaker at a past Potomac Officers Club event, the service plans to have a soldier-manned counter-drone battery at each division, C4ISRNET reported.

Speaking Tuesday at a panel hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Gainey added that his office is coordinating with U.S. Special Operations Command on crafting the strategy to attack threats before their launch.   

In the same panel discussion Sgt. Maj. Demetrius Johnson, a senior enlisted adviser at Gainey’s office, said it will “become a basic soldier requirement” to identify and report drone threats. In some cases, soldiers have to be able to react to the threat, with the Army planning to provide handheld anti-drone devices, he added.