1st Lt. Francesco La Torre of the 173rd Airborne Brigade piloted a first-person-view drone carrying a Claymore into a fixed-wing uncrewed aerial vehicle, resulting in the Army's first drone-on-drone kill. A teammate armed and detonated the payload after La Torre guided the drone toward the UAS, and the fixed-wing platform fell from the sky. The intercept occurred at the Army's UAS and Launched Effects Summit at Fort Rucker, Alabama, with involvement from the Army Combat Capabilities Command and Army Futures Command. Paratroopers trained for weeks, flying drones daily in changing weather as the service and other branches accelerate adaptation to drone warfare.
Earlier this month at a training exercise, 1st Lt. Francesco La Torre from the 173rd Airborne Brigade flew a first-person view drone carrying a Claymore mine into a fixed-wing uncrewed aerial vehicle, according to a new Army press release. La Torre piloted the drone towards the UAS as another member of his team armed and detonated the payload. Then La Torre looked up from his end-user device (EUD) and saw the fixed-wing drone fall out of the sky.
"In A New Hope, Luke Skywalker flies an X-Wing through the Death Star trench and blows it up," he said. It's an iconic scene. "This wasn't like that. It was way harder. Honestly, it felt more like Darth Vader shooting down rebel pilots. He might be the villain, but he's also one of the best pilots in the galaxy."
Collection
[
|
...
]