The U.S. Army is taking counter-drone experimentation from Europe to INDOPACOM

Pfc. Mason Davis, a drone operator with the 25th Infantry Division, watches a Ghost-X reconnaissance drone land after a mission on Pohakuloa Training Area, Hawaii, on Nov. 13, 2025. (U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Jose Nunez)

By Meghann Myers • Dec 01, 2025

U.S. soldiers deployed to Europe had a busy November testing out counter-drone systems that the service hopes to get into the hands of more NATO allies, as well as with units and allies as far away as the Indo-Pacific.

First Polish, Romanian, and American troops trained together Nov. 18 in Poland on Merops, an AI-enabled, pickup-truck-transportable system that identifies enemy drones, then launches a cheap fixed-wing drone to ram them. At the same time, the Army held Operation Flytrap 4.5 in Germany, a competition of 20 cUAS contenders in a competition for one of four $350,000 prizes.

“It also demonstrated our capability, just as Flytrap did, to integrate with industry, to move very quickly to employ a capability that’s lethal,” Brig. Gen. Curt King, who leads the 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command in Germany, told reporters Tuesday. “It can defeat the Shahed-type threats, but also it demonstrates our ability to place capabilities that are much cheaper than some of our other previous systems that we’ve been using to date, to ensure that we are able to build the capacity against the drone threats that could be placed into the air.”