America's Contingency Corps trains against the drone threat of the next war

FORT BRAGG, N.C. — The character of warfare is changing, and the growing use of unmanned aircraft systems on battlefields around the world is forcing mi… FORT BRAGG, N.C. — The character of warfare is changing, and the growing use of unmanned aircraft systems on battlefields around the world is forcing militaries to adapt faster than ever. At Fort Bragg, the XVIII Airborne Corps is taking on that challenge through Scarlet Dragon, an exercise that brings Soldiers and industry partners together to test emerging technology in realistic field conditions. The exercise helped the corps evaluate which capabilities can integrate across the force, including systems designed to detect, track and defeat unmanned aircraft threats.

“The Scarlet Dragon exercise has become a validation exercise in the dirt with Soldiers doing integrated, real-world operational-type tasks,” said Col. Tom Monahan, director of the XVIII Airborne Corps’ Joint Innovation Outpost. The exercise, held Sept. 11-17, 2026, at Fort Bragg, combined Soldiers, military systems, artificial intelligence, resilient data pathways and industry partners to address one of the Army’s most pressing challenges: integrating sensors, electronic warfare, command-and-control and defensive fires against evolving unmanned aircraft threats. “Basically, transitioning gaps to capability requirements that we need, capabilities that will fill the gaps, and then running them through the exercise and the experimentation to come away with our findings to