Charlie Phelps
The ridgelines were jagged and unforgiving, carved by centuries of wind and water. On a narrow plateau above a coastal highway, Task Force Wolfhound had just completed hasty defensive preparations. The task force, built around a reinforced infantry battalion with attached fires, engineers, and expeditionary sustainment support, faced an adversary division equipped with armor, long-range artillery, and rotary-wing aviation in support, advancing south. Task Force Wolfhound had been deployed on a Pacific Pathways rotation in US Indo-Pacific Command’s area of responsibility, but was quickly caught in the middle of a cascade of geopolitical events. The venerated Wolfhounds of the 25th Infantry Division rapidly transitioned from executing operations in competition to doing so in crisis—and now found themselves on the cusp of armed conflict. By every conventional measure, Task Force Wolfhound was outnumbered and outgunned, but it possessed a decisive edge: small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) integrated at echelon from fire teams to the battalion headquarters. As a derivative of the Army Transformation Initiative, efforts within the Army’s Maneuver Capabilities Development and Integration Directorate, and Project Convergence, the Wolfhounds were determined to not relive the memory of Task Force Smith.
Upon receiving the directive to dig in and fight, the task force commander had ordered every company to seed engagement areas with hundreds of sUAS of varying size and purpose. Soldiers referred to it as “the swarm,” though in reality it was a carefully orchestrated ecosystem of sensors, decoys, and strike-capable platforms. Some drones were the size of a person’s hand, operating at treetop level and tasked with finding enemy scouts and screening elements. Others were Group 2 quadcopters, equipped with thermal cameras and loitering munitions. Still others carried electronic warfare payloads to jam adversary GPS signals or spoof targeting radars. Critically, these systems were operated at the company, platoon, and squad levels, allowing leaders to direct their employment to meet commander’s intent.
The Wolfhounds built their engagement areas not only on terrain, obstacles, and fires, but on data. By midafternoon, drone operators had mapped every approach route with high-resolution imagery, tagging choke points where engineers emplaced obstacles and mining systems. Real-time aerial feeds confirmed when enemy reconnaissance patrols attempted to breach these obstacles. A platoon leader from Borzoi Company received a drone alert showing adversary sappers clearing a lane through a minefield. Within minutes, he retasked a loitering munition to destroy their breaching vehicle, forcing the enemy main body to halt. This was the essence of Task Force Wolfhound’s defense: drones extending eyes, ears, and weapons far forward of the line of contact, disrupting tempo before the first artillery rounds landed.
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