Fort Indiantown Gap expands drone, counter-drone training opportunities

Fort Indiantown Gap is expanding its UAS and counter-UAS training opportunities to meet evolving battlefield strategies, a spokesman for the local military base said this month in a press release.

“UAS” refers to an Unmanned Aircraft System or, more commonly, drones.

Several ranges at the base have been altered in recent months for UAS and counter-UAS training so service members are prepared when they are deployed to hostile environments, Kurt Spieles, Fort Indiantown Gap’s range program coordinator, said in the release.

“Small, unmanned aircraft systems have become a defining and complex component of the modern battlefield,” Spieles said. “Soldiers and units training at Fort Indiantown Gap need realistic, hands-on experience operating UASs for their own missions and, just as critically, detecting, tracking and defeating hostile drones before they can inflict harm upon them.

“Counter-UAS proficiency is no longer a niche skill set, but a core survivability requirement for any unit with the potential to deploy.”

According to the release from Brad Rhen, deputy state public affairs officer for the Pennsylvania National Guard, Range 35 now includes a quadcopter and fixed-wing live-fire concept to allow users to engage drones with M249 or M240B machine guns. The range is sited in the training corridor between Blue and Second mountains.

The concept includes the capability to engage fixed-wing drones referred to as “wings,” fixed-wing gliders deployed by payload-capable quadcopters, and “attritable” first-person-view, or FPV, quadcopter drones, Rhen explained.

Range 20, along Range Road, has been modified to incorporate a counter-UAS team into a fire and maneuver squad. A team can surge forward on the range and engage ground targets with 5.56mm rounds and sporting clays with shotguns.

The installation also added a large trench where soldiers can take up a defensive posture and engage clays with shotguns or ground targets with rifles. Clay throwers can be placed in various locations on the range and are thrown toward users to replicate high-speed one-way attack drones, Rhen said in the release.

The program also is developing an inert FPV (First-Person View) gunnery range on Range 6A, where users can pilot a drone using specialized video goggles tied into the drone’s onboard camera. According to the release, this will allow pilots to fly one-way attack drones directly into targets using a soft impact target backstop made of large wooden frames with netting, similar to what’s used in a batting cage, so the drones sustain minimal damage despite multiple impacts.

Using modified shipping containers, the base has created a mock village so drone pilots can practice flying through a simulated urban environment.

Fort Indiantown Gap continuously updates its ranges and training areas to mirror real-world threat evolution, Spieles said, rather than relying on static, outdated concepts.

“This includes integrating small UAS operations and counter-UAS response into range and maneuver training and developing in-house sUAS capability, including 3D-printed airframes to keep pace with rapidly changing commercial and military drone technology at a fraction of traditional timelines and costs,” he said in the release. “This adaptive approach ensures soldiers train against realistic, current threat profiles rather than legacy assumptions.”

Additional upgrades are underway, including two classrooms, a simulator room, a locker room, and office space.

Col. Kevin Potts, Fort Indiantown Gap’s garrison commander, said the integration of UAS and counter-UAS training is crucial as the threat environment on a modern battlefield evolves.

“At Fort Indiantown Gap, our goal is to ensure that our service members have access to modern, realistic training through innovation and outside-the-box thinking,” Potts said. “Through this we are providing ranges for UAS and counter-UAS training in order to equip our warfighters with the critical skills they need to win on a multi-domain battlefield.”