Army Aviation’s Wasted Decade: Lessons for the Next Generation of Drone Integration
Why this matters: an international story with cross-border implications worth tracking.
In 2006, the U.S. Army’s 25th Combat Aviation Brigade deployed to Iraq, where it paired Task Force ODIN (Observe, Detect, Identify, and Neutralize) with an Apache battalion from the 82nd Airborne Division — a first-of-its-kind teaming of attack helicopters with drones. These units combined manned and unmanned sensors to identify and destroy improvised explosive devices and high-value targets, leveraging drones to fill gaps in traditional rotary wing aviation. Col. Jamie La Valley, at the time a captain with the 82nd, told me he felt he was witnessing “the future of warfare.” “Man, Army Aviation is on to something,” he recalls thinking. The post Army Aviation’s Wasted Decade: Lessons for the Next Generation of Drone Integration appeared first on War on the Rocks.