This overview volume of a five-part series presents findings on how the U.S. Army can improve its training ecosystem for, and acquisition of, small uncrewed aircraft systems (SUAS). The authors developed these findings by examining requirements (and options for filling them), options for new approaches for acquiring and accounting for SUAS, and changes to the training ecosystem on Army installations needed to facilitate realistic training.

Small Uncrewed Aircraft Systems in Divisional Brigades

Requirements and Findings

Terrence K. Kelly, Angela Putney, Timothy Parker, Frank Camm, Emily Ellinger, Kenneth Girardini, Jan Osburg, Hunter Stoll, Jonathan P. Wong

ResearchPublished Apr 8, 2025

Small uncrewed aircraft systems (SUAS) present a major opportunity and challenge for the U.S. Army. Army units and organizations are actively experimenting with SUAS and developing new approaches for using them, providing insights into the Army's requirements for using SUAS at different organization levels. SUAS capabilities are rapidly evolving, which makes the task of fielding and maintaining cutting-edge SUAS-enabled forces more challenging.

Exploiting the many opportunities that SUAS present will require the Army to train as it will fight and overcome substantial force-integration challenges. To examine these issues, the XVIII Airborne Corps asked RAND researchers to identify options for the Army to select, field, and employ SUAS and to assess the implications of integrating additional SUAS for reconnaissance, fires, and other purposes below the division echelon.

The authors conducted interviews with Army and private-sector experts and reviewed applicable literature and databases related to SUAS. In this report, the authors identify materiel requirements for using SUAS effectively, develop case studies of such use, and demonstrate improvements to acquiring, training with, and managing SUAS.

This volume is the first of a five-part series and provides an overview of the study, including short summaries from the other volumes in this series.

Key Findings

  • SUAS present a major opportunity and challenge for the U.S. Army, and significant change is required to realize the opportunity.
  • Most importantly, the Army needs a training ecosystem that supports realistic training with SUAS. Currently, units cannot train in real-world conditions because of range, airspace, and spectrum-management challenges.
  • The Army can solve many of the training obstacles it faces, but this will require attention and urgency and coordination across the armed forces and civil services.
  • Army doctrine, culture, and Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures must also change to make SUAS part of how the Army operates.
  • How the Army purchases SUAS makes them unduly expensive, and how it treats losses in training deters commanders from using them, but new approaches that use the Adaptive Acquisition Framework and emphasize inexpensive (often commercial) SUAS could facilitate the use of SUAS in training.
  • The Army's spectrum-management approach is insufficient for using SUAS in training and combat, and current spectrum allocation is limited. However, the Army can increase spectrum capacity and permit better spectrum use through more-dynamic frequency allocation and other measures.
  • There is a large and growing market for commercially available SUAS, many of which could have great utility to XVIII Airborne Corps units. As of 2023, 176 commercial SUAS can satisfy the XVIII Airborne Corps requirements, with 26 meeting multiple sets of requirements.

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Citation

RAND Style Manual

Kelly, Terrence K., Angela Putney, Timothy Parker, Frank Camm, Emily Ellinger, Kenneth Girardini, Jan Osburg, Hunter Stoll, and Jonathan P. Wong, Small Uncrewed Aircraft Systems in Divisional Brigades: Requirements and Findings, RAND Corporation, RR-A2642-1, 2025. As of April 30, 2025: https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA2642-1.html

Chicago Manual of Style

Kelly, Terrence K., Angela Putney, Timothy Parker, Frank Camm, Emily Ellinger, Kenneth Girardini, Jan Osburg, Hunter Stoll, and Jonathan P. Wong, Small Uncrewed Aircraft Systems in Divisional Brigades: Requirements and Findings. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2025. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA2642-1.html.
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The research described in this report was sponsored by sponsored by XVIII Airborne Corps and conducted by the Forces and Logistics Program within the RAND Arroyo Center.

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