A machine gunner with the opposing force’s 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, waits in the Bavarian forest during exercise Saber Junction in the Hohenfels Training Area, Germany, Sept. 3, 2026. The unit used drone reconnaissance to track simulated enemy forces throughout the exercise, part of the Army’s effort to adapt training to lessons from the war in Ukraine. (Matthew M. Burke/Stars and Stripes)
HOHENFELS, Germany — The scene was more college dorm than contested German battlefield: three U.S. soldiers hunched over a screen with an Xbox controller, Red Bull, granola bars and nicotine within arm’s reach.
The bleary-eyed drone operators from 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment called for artillery fire on three enemy vehicles sitting in the open beside a tree line. A puff of smoke on the screen confirmed all three were destroyed, leaving nine dead in the simulated strike.
“We’ve been watching this group of people,” said Spc. Jair Hernandez, a former tanker. “They have no clue we’re there.”
It was one of 29 drone-assisted artillery attacks the unit had carried out by 9 a.m. that day during this year’s Saber Junction, an annual exercise at the sprawling Hohenfels Training Area in Bavaria.
Pfc. Matthew Munoz, a former tanker turned drone operator with the opposing force’s 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, points out potential targets using a Vector AI drone during exercise Saber Junction at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, Germany, Sept. 3, 2026. The unit’s drone operators called in 29 artillery strikes by 9 a.m. on one day of the exercise alone. (Matthew M. Burke/Stars and Stripes)
The site is home to the Joint Multinational Readiness Center, the Army’s only combat training hub outside the U.S. The drills pitted the resident opposing force from 1st Battalion against an invading coalition led by the Italy-based 173rd Mobile Brigade (Airborne).
With 1,900 drones and tactics lifted straight from the battlefields of Ukraine, the exercise tested whether the 173rd could adapt to a battlefield where troops and vehicles that remain exposed or stationary can be detected and struck within minutes.
“We are trying as best as we can to mimic what the Ukrainians are putting out there,” said Lt. Benjamin Ryan, executive officer of the opposing force’s new Eerie Company.
Fielded in January, Eerie specializes in drones, reconnaissance at all elevations and electronic warfare. It was designed to deliver the most realistic and up-to-date training for visiting units. Ukrainian drone experts participating in the exercise observed Eerie and analyzed its performance.
They said “that if we were sent to Ukraine, we’d win some battles, which is pretty nice,” Ryan said with a grin.
A drone flies over the Hohenfels Training Area during exercise Saber Junction in Germany, Sept. 3, 2026. The exercise featured about 1,900 drones and tactics drawn from the war in Ukraine, testing how well units can operate under constant aerial surveillance. (Matthew M. Burke/Stars and Stripes)
In just a few short years, Russia’s war in Ukraine and the proliferation of drones have transformed the way armies fight. Militaries have been forced to move away from large troop concentrations, slower legacy platforms and static command posts, relying instead on speed, constant movement and camouflage.
The effects of those changes were visible during Thursday’s exercise. The Hohenfels Training Area was littered with figuratively destroyed vehicles on both sides, their beacons flashing to indicate their status. The whir of unseen drones overhead was omnipresent.
Eerie Company had set up its screen-filled tactical operations center in the basement of a hotel, two floors below Hernandez and the drone operators. When the team spotted a target with their mid-range Vector AI drone, they relayed the coordinates downstairs, and the command post launched a fire mission.
“You see what the Ukrainians have done to a force larger than theirs, and … now we take those lessons that we’ve learned from them and show training units like, ‘Hey, the battlefield has changed,’” said Eerie drone operator Staff Sgt. Jaden Kelly. “The things that we thought worked no longer work, so now it’s time to think with new ideas and start changing.”
Soldiers with the opposing force’s 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, coordinate troop movements and drone operations from a tactical operations center in the basement of a mock hotel during exercise Saber Junction in the Hohenfels Training Area, Germany, Sept. 3, 2026. The unit fielded a new drone and electronic warfare company in January to give visiting troops a more realistic sense of the modern battlefield. (Matthew M. Burke/Stars and Stripes)
Saber Junction is an annual multinational exercise that tests regional plans in support of NATO’s Eastern Flank Deterrence Initiative against a peer adversary designed to mimic the Russian military.
This year’s exercise features over 5,000 U.S. and European troops, including 3,300 soldiers from the 173rd, which is divided between nearby Grafenwoehr and the Italian city of Vicenza.
The 173rd had been hit hard during the first eight days of the simulated fighting. In a single strike Wednesday, 42 of its soldiers were “killed” after they made the mistake of staging in the open, said Kelly, who called the strike “wicked.”
Soldiers with the opposing force’s 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, move along a trail during exercise Saber Junction in the Hohenfels Training Area, Germany, Sept. 3, 2026. Staying in constant motion and out of the open has become essential as drone surveillance makes stationary troops easy targets. (Matthew M. Burke/Stars and Stripes)
Armored personnel carriers move through the Hohenfels Training Area during exercise Saber Junction in Germany, Sept. 3, 2026. The invading 173rd Airborne Brigade lost 42 soldiers in a single simulated strike after staging in the open, a lesson organizers say mirrors what has happened on real battlefields in Ukraine. (Matthew M. Burke/Stars and Stripes)
Soldiers with the opposition force’s 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, move out of an armored personnel carrier into position during exercise Saber Junction in the Hohenfels Training Area, Germany, Sept. 3, 2026. Militaries have moved away from large troop concentrations as drones make massed, stationary units easier to spot and strike. (Matthew M. Burke/Stars and Stripes)
But the Sky Soldiers were learning to adapt. They were increasingly staying under cover and countering with their own drones and electronic warfare equipment, Ryan said.
On Wednesday, they even started targeting drones in the air with conventional weapons.
“They’re doing a better job,” Ryan said. “It’s good to see them try to develop in those ways.”