Tag Archives: sUAS

Climb to Glory: Air Scouts out, UAS Company(s) Real In

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Transformation is the buzzword.

The 10th Mountain Division (LI) made a quiet move last week to case the colors of the 164-year old (constituted 4 May 1861) 6th Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment (“Fighting Six-Six”) and disband the heavy attack reconnaissance squadron (HARS), sending its 24 AH-64D Longbow Apaches and six RQ-7Bv2 Shadows to other units.

In its place, Fox Company, 1st Battalion, 10th Aviation Regiment (F, 1-10 Attack Battalion), a new company dedicated to achieving “drone dominance” on the modern battlefield, was activated.

The other three companies in 1-10 Attack will be Apache units, fielding 24 of the birds, at least for now. In the meantime, the Army is retiring older AH-64D models (starting FY2026) to focus on modernizing smaller numbers of AH-64E, which notably have counter-drone capabilities and allow for more UAV integration. Further, with the long-planned Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) program canceled last year, you can bet Apaches in general will likely be replaced by unmanned assets sometime in the 2030s.

“As the 10th Mountain Division’s first dedicated Tactical Unmanned Aircraft Systems (TUAS) and Launch Effects (LE) company, these Soldiers are now at the forefront of the Army Aviation Transformation Initiative,” said the Army of Fox 1-10 Attack.

Meanwhile, new Multifunctional Reconnaissance Companies (MFRC), focused on Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) employment, are standing up in the 10th Mountain as well as the rest of the Army at the brigade level.

At Camp Beauregard, LA, Soldiers from Sioux Company (Multi-Purpose Company), 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, prepared to launch a Medium-Range Reconnaissance (MRR) Ghost-X drone while utilizing the Soldier Borne Mission Command Surrogate (SBMC-S) system during a training exercise. The SBMC-S empowers Soldiers to task and hand off Uncrewed Aerial System (UAS) assets, simultaneously providing access to high-resolution, full-motion video (FMV) streamed directly from the drone. (U.S. Army photo by Zach Montanaro, PEO Soldier Public Affairs)

Coasties step up their UAV game

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USCGC Stratton (WMSL-752), the Coast Guard’s third 418-foot Legend-Class National Security Cutter, just returned to Alameda following 98-day counter-smuggling patrol.

While underway she intercepted three suspected smuggling vessels carrying more than 3,600 pounds of cocaine, completed 150 drills associated with her biannual Tailored Ship’s Training Availability, made a port call at Golfito, Costa Rica to conduct some humanitarian efforts, and brought an additional five tons of blow back to port seized by other cutters for offload.

But she also made a little history by deploying with a ScanEagle sUAS. Stratton has used Scan Eagle in proof of concept tests previously (see the below image of the UAV being “trapped”) but this is the first actual deployment.

The Unmanned Aerial Surveillance aircraft Scan Eagle is recovered on the Coast Guard Cutter Stratton during a demonstration approximately 150 miles off the Pacific Coast, Aug. 13, 2012. The Scan Eagle is being tested for capabilities that will create a reliable reconnaissance system for all 11 Coast Guard missions. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Luke Clayton.

From the USCG’s presser:

Stratton’s crew made history by being the first Coast Guard cutter to deploy fully equipped with a small unmanned aerial system (sUAS) for an entire patrol. The sUAS had been previously used in drug interdiction as part of field testing but had not deployed aboard to a cutter for an entire patrol. The sUAS flew more than 35 sorties, accumulated over 260 flight hours and provided real-time surveillance and detection imagery during interdiction operations. This real-time imagery and persistent surveillance capability assisted Stratton’s embarked helicopter and law enforcement teams with the interdictions.