“Defeat” By Drones Teaches U.S. Army Hard FPV Lessons The Easy Way

BusinessAerospace & Defense“Defeat” By Drones Teaches U.S. Army Hard FPV Lessons The Easy WayByDavid Hambling,Senior Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I'm a South London-based technology journalist, consultant and authorFollow AuthorApr 21, 2026, 07:08am EDT--:-- / --:--This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.Ranger competitor in the "Last Line of Defense" exercise takes aim at an incoming FPV drone U.S. ArmyA soldier’s worst nightmare is an FPV drone buzzing straight for them. Armchair pundits say they would just shoot the drone down, but real life is not so easy. 40 elite U.S. Ranger teams took part in a “Last Line of Defense” exercise this month with live ammunition against FPV drones coming at them. We do not know the full details or how many engagements there were in total, but only 15 drones were downed. In real life there could have been heavy casualties. “The training effectively demonstrated both the difficulty of engaging small, fast-moving aerial targets and the importance of repetition under realistic conditions,” Brett Velicovich, Co-Founder of Powerus who supplied the Matrix-T drones told me. (My emphasis). A tennis ball dropped from a Norwegian drone drops on to a helpless Bradley armored vehicleU.S. ArmyIn other results, U.S. forces were reportedly humiliated by drones dropping tennis balls simulating grenades into vehicle hatches in a recent exercise, while NATO armored battalions were easily defeated by a small force of Ukrainian drone operators. None of this means the U.S. Army is outmatched and outdated in the drone age. Instead it highlights the importance of building understanding and learning new tactics on the training ground, rather than in the middle of a shooting war. MORE FOR YOUTesting TimesThe FPV shootout was part of this year’s Best Ranger Competition, an annual event for two-person teams. All competitor...