Kateryna Chernoval01:46, 26.04.26

American fighters repeated the operation during September exercises at an airfield in Florida.

The United States military practiced Ukrainian Operation ” Website ” during exercises, when drones carried out devastating strikes on Russian airfields.

The operation was repeated by American soldiers during September exercises at an airfield in Florida. Soldiers from the 10th Special Forces Group carried out a drone attack, where counter-drone units from various branches of the US armed forces acted as defenders. They underwent training for a week using technologies that the Pentagon has spent billions of dollars developing,  Defense One reports .

The training at Eglin Air Force Base was called “Operation Clear Horizon.” Brigadier General Matt Ross, who heads the Joint Interagency Task Force 401 – the Pentagon’s counter-drone coordination center, said that the special forces gained experience in Eastern Europe, in Ukraine and told what they saw on the battlefield. 

“They used conventional commercial drones that operate on radio frequencies. They used drones with directional antennas that are harder to jam, as well as drones with frequency switching, which provides a more robust connection against electromagnetic attacks. We used drones with fiber-optic control… We used drones controlled via LTE, a cellular network,” the general added. 

This attempt to recreate the battlefield in Ukraine is a significant departure from how the Pentagon typically tests its technology against drones. The working group spent six weeks in Ukraine, where they spoke with representatives of the Unmanned Systems Forces.

“Then we considered the most promising technologies and based our decision on data on their characteristics in Ukraine, rather than the results of the ministry’s internal tests and assessments,” Ross explained.

The experience has led to changes in how the US plans to protect facilities and troops and what equipment it buys to shoot down drones. The general noted that the US now has a single software solution for tracking drones and a single interface used by all branches of the armed forces. 

In addition, the exercises revealed the need to pay more attention to long-range unmanned aerial vehicles, which can cause significant damage to targets such as command and control, logistics, or air defense facilities. For smaller UAVs, the States should develop interceptor drones that will cost less than missiles.Read also:

The article says that the working group is passing on information to American commanders – particularly those stationed in the Middle East. 

“We have already purchased some of these systems to begin integrating them across the Department of Defense. In the last six weeks, we have committed over $600 million to address this issue, including the rapid integration of new countermeasure technologies [to unmanned aerial systems],” Ross added. 

In its 2027 budget proposal, the Pentagon is requesting $75 billion for new drone technologies. Notably, this amount exceeds the annual GDP of some countries. It is also larger than the current budget of the US Marine Corps. 

Learning from the experience of war in Ukraine

US Army training using  FPV drones  has shown that even trained units have serious difficulties in trying to intercept them. The exercises used Matrix-T drones, which are quadcopters with speeds of up to 130 miles per hour (about 210 km/h), similar in characteristics to those used in Ukraine.

Earlier, Ukrainians surprised NATO instructors during exercises in Britain. Western military personnel were surprised by the tactical flexibility of Ukrainian fighters. 

(C)UNIAN 2026