On April 22, 2026, Blackhawk Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, entered a grueling 10-day training event at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, Germany.
The company’s commander led the formation as its Bradley Fighting Vehicles moved through the Bavarian countryside toward an exercise that would soon attract national attention.
The Wall Street Journal later described Combined Resolve under the headline “U.S. and Ukrainian Forces Went Head-to-Head in an Exercise. Ukraine’s Drones Won.”
That tidy verdict made for dramatic copy, but it did not capture the complete fight, the adaptation of American soldiers, or the lessons learned alongside Ukrainian troops.
According to the newspaper, “during the exercise, called Combined Resolve, Ukrainian drone units easily spotted and defeated U.S. troops and armored vehicles on rotation from Fort Hood in Texas.” The article characterized the outcome as a “drubbing.”
Blackhawk Company knew before entering the 14-by-27-kilometer training range, universally called “the box,” that this would be no ordinary rotation.
The center’s Warrior Battalion would be reinforced by the Ukrainian Unmanned Systems Forces’ 412th Regiment, an elite formation known as “Nemesis.”
Blackhawk soldiers had already met members of Nemesis and examined some of their equipment while preparing for the exercise. These Ukrainians brought hard-earned battlefield experience, and one soldier was reportedly credited with nearly 500 combat kills.
Nemesis was watching before Blackhawk’s vehicles even crossed the only gate leading into the training area.
That chokepoint provided a predictable target, and Ukrainian reconnaissance drones were already circling overhead as the mechanized column entered.
The company’s opening mission was to establish a defense, build fighting positions, develop engagement areas, and hunt opposing formations.
Throughout those operations, drones of every size moved above the soldiers, including aircraft with propellers loud enough to resemble helicopters and smaller systems that were difficult to detect among the trees.
Blackhawk Company did not possess the counter-unmanned aircraft systems capability its soldiers would have preferred. Its brigade was not a Transformation in Contact formation receiving new and sometimes experimental technology directly from Army developers and industry.
Perhaps someone has created a secret “win button” for drone warfare, but Blackhawk Company certainly did not have one. Instead of complaining about an uneven fight against seasoned combat veterans, its soldiers adapted and accepted that the sky was now a permanent part of the battlefield.
Within hours, units changed how they occupied positions, strengthened concealment, and scattered personnel and vehicles over greater distances. Bradley crews pushed into thick woods, even at the risk of soft ground and damaged German trees, because survival demanded protection from overhead observation.
Movement became slower, smarter, and more deliberate as soldiers considered what every position looked like from above. It was no longer enough to study the terrain from ground level while pretending the enemy’s eyes remained fixed to the earth.
The heavily forested training area contained steep hills, deep draws, valleys, and pockets of dead space.
Because mechanized formations normally favor roads and trails, Nemesis expected to dominate those obvious routes, so Blackhawk Company went where armored units were not supposed to go.
Blackhawk’s Bradleys crossed steep gullies and slopes approaching 40 degrees while platoons carved unconventional paths toward their objectives.
he terrain pushed machines and crews close to their limits, but it also delivered natural concealment and masking from airborne sensors.
The enemy still located elements of the company, but drones alone did not finish the job.
Opposing forces still required traditional ground reconnaissance and infiltration because aerial information only became decisive when soldiers were positioned to exploit it.
American forces lost Bradleys, tanks, and simulated crew members during the exercise because the training was designed to apply maximum pressure.
Those losses did not prove that heavy armor had become obsolete, regardless of how eagerly some armchair strategists might reach for that fashionable conclusion.
Bradleys and Abrams tanks carried soldiers through terrain that would have delayed lighter formations, protected their crews, and preserved the combat power needed to seize objectives. Armor did not merely create a larger target because it also made Blackhawk Company mobile, protected, confident, and dangerous.
On the sixth day, the company shifted from defensive operations to the offense, and the same Ukrainian troops who had hunted Blackhawk’s soldiers began working beside them. American soldiers grew more capable as old assumptions collapsed and practical battlefield solutions took their place.
Nemesis demonstrated how inexpensive drones could travel extraordinary distances and delivered a masterclass in rapidly connecting sensors with shooters.
Their tactics and technology offered lessons that American formations can now study, refine, and incorporate into future operations.
The most important lesson, however, was that technology does not replace human beings.
Operators, reconnaissance teams, and ground troops remain essential components of every drone network, which means they also remain vulnerable pressure points.
When Blackhawk Company maneuvered aggressively enough to make the hunters of Nemesis feel hunted, drone activity above the company diminished.
Combined Resolve was not a simple tale of American armor being humiliated by Ukrainian drones, but a demanding demonstration that disciplined soldiers can adapt, fight, and turn even an unfavorable battlefield into a classroom.
