Ten warrant officers were designated as the Army's inaugural cohort of robotics technicians on Oct. 2, when the 390A military occupational specialty was formally established. The rank of Major was listed.
Slider, who leads the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School at Fort Bragg, outlined how personnel in those positions would take on responsibilities well beyond operating or servicing drones and ground robots remotely, noting that the operator role was not intended to function like that of a pilot. The project under way is intended as a full-scale deployment, not a test run.
Slider, speaking at a Defense One event held on the margins of the AUSA annual conference, described the goal as developing troops capable of tailoring robotic equipment to fit the demands of a given mission, the nature of an opposing force, and the conditions of the ground they operate on. Framing the conflict in Ukraine as among the most instructive cases for shaping doctrine and training in an era of autonomous battlefield systems, he pointed to Nagorno-Karabakh, Ukraine, and active engagements in the Middle East as theatres his team had examined and continued to monitor.
A 2021 Center for Army Lessons Learned report documented an Azerbaijani approach in which Soviet-era AN-2 biplanes, operated without onboard crews, flew at low altitudes to draw out Armenian defensive responses — an application of unmanned platforms that introduced confusion into opposing decision-making — while analysts have noted that armed forces oriented exclusively around piloted aircraft tend to cede tactical ground to opponents who integrate such technology into their operational planning.
During Operation Epic Fury earlier this year, a comparable approach took shape in the Middle East, with low-cost drones built along the lines of Iran's own Shahed design deployed in numbers against Iranian forces.
Radio frequencies directed at them were being disrupted, yet the group maintained communications through a decentralised mesh network that routed signals around the interference. Updike explained that even with one node disabled, the network retained enough redundant connection points to maintain communication with the quadcopter and keep the operation on track.
According to Slider, a substantial portion of the curriculum is built around prompting students to encounter setbacks and rethink their approach. Four weeks into the program, participants had advanced beyond what the curriculum covered, leading Slider to collaborate with academics, outside sources, and international partners to raise the difficulty level and extend the training schedule. Slider noted that the tasks participants handled during the culminating exercise aligned far more closely with what the operational force had been asking for.
Telle, serving as acting Army secretary, told reporters his office had opened discussions with the office overseeing special operations and low-intensity conflict about broadening the specialty's reach, though no additional specifics were offered. He noted that certain military occupational specialties had historically remained confined to special forces communities rather than being distributed across the wider Army.
