Combined Resolve Exposed the Army's Slow Drone-Buying Cycle

Ukrainian operators dismantled an armored brigade in an exercise. The Army's FY2027 answer shifts drone selection toward soldiers and tests whether industry can keep pace.

Combined Resolve delivered a procurement-tempo verdict, not an armor verdict. Over two weeks in April and May 2026 at a US Army training area in Germany, roughly 3,700 US soldiers had vehicles assessed as destroyed by Ukrainian drone operators so quickly that exercise staff had to "respawn" them to keep the training running. The Wall Street Journal disclosed the result on Aug. 12, citing an unidentified US official briefed on the exercise. Most of the troops came from the 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, on rotation from Fort Hood.

Combined Resolve in Germany

The Journal described Combined Resolve as a twice-yearly exercise in Germany that rehearses large-scale ground combat. The opposing force centered on drone operators from Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces 412th Regiment, "Nemesis." The US formation brought M1A2 Abrams tanks, M2 Bradley fighting vehicles, helicopter support and standard counter-drone equipment. Imagery released by the Joint Multinational Readiness Center shows the Abrams in the mock engagement and a jammer stencilled "Dronebuster, Drone Destroyer" carried against the Ukrainian aircraft.

Ukrainian reconnaissance drones found the armored columns by the dust they raised, according to the Journal's account. FPV strike drones followed, killing vehicles in the simulation faster than replacements could enter play. At one point, an entire armored brigade was assessed as eliminated. Eliot Cohen of the Center for Strategic and International Studies told the Journal: "It is vital that the U.S. military master that, and thus far, unfortunately, that does not seem to be the case." The principal account rests on an unnamed official, a real limitation.