US Army paratroopers in Alaska fly armed FPV drones in first kinetic drone strike at Richardson Training Area

TLDR

• Paratroopers of the 2nd Mobile Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 11th Airborne Division, flew armed FPV drones in Alaska live-fire exercises.¹²
• Exercises on 29 September and 19 and 20 October included the first kinetic drone strike in the Richardson Training Area.¹
• Army Recognition notes the Army account does not name the drone model, payload mass or engagement range.²

Paratroopers of the 2nd Mobile Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 11th Airborne Division, integrated armed small unmanned aircraft, sniper teams, reconnaissance elements and a gun truck in Multi-Purpose Company live-fire exercises at the Multi-Purpose Training Range at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, on 29 September and 19 and 20 October, the Army reported on 27 October.¹ The Army says the exercises included the first kinetic drone strike conducted within the Richardson Training Area.¹ Capt. Raymond Bartoli, a brigade planner and the range's officer in charge, called it "the first of its kind in the Richardson Training Area".¹

Before the live strike, the brigade's Multi-Functional Reconnaissance Company worked with explosive ordnance disposal personnel and the brigade's small-drone master trainer to fly test flights with unarmed explosive payloads, so operators could see how the added weight affected maneuverability.¹ The reconnaissance company then flew the first live strike, which let the Multi-Purpose Companies integrate armed drones into their own live-fire exercises.¹ The Army says armed drones at company level give commanders another way to find targets and deliver precision fires in Arctic and mountainous terrain, where restricted ground movement and degraded line-of-sight communications complicate operations.¹

Army Recognition notes that the first-strike claim applies to the Richardson Training Area and is not the Army's first use of an explosive FPV drone, and that the Army account gives no information on scale of equipment, sustained availability or adoption by other formations.²

Why it matters: an airborne brigade in Alaska has moved armed FPV drones from test flights into company-level live-fire training alongside snipers and a gun truck, but the reports name no airframe and describe a local training milestone rather than fielding.¹²