Drone ISR AAR, by BePrepared

After Action Report of @brushbeater Drone ISR course, courtesy of @BePrepared72 

This was not my first class at the Brushbeater Training World Headquarters and I arrived looking forward to another great class I’ve come to expect from NcScout and the instructors he invites. We all filed into the classroom and I found that there was a majority of students who were graduates of the Scout/Recce and or RTO/SigInt courses NcScout hosts. Now while these classes are recommended, they are in NO WAY needed or a requirement to take the Drone ISR class.

Day One

There was a basic entry level start so everyone could be on the same track, what is a drone, what are the components used in drone control etc. Then we went outside and everyone got to get hands on with some “starter” drones. Not really “cheap” drones, these had some autonomous features, but they were not the expensive IR drone we worked with later. After some start-up confusion (crossing of handshakes and RF energy) we got into small groups and spent some hours (yes hours) getting the feel of pitch, roll and yaw on the quad copters. As my previous experience with drones was about 102 seconds before I broke a cheap rotor in a tree, this was much appreciated.

After a break we went back out and were encouraged to try and spot other groups further away and out of our line of sight, this got us used to working the drone without “eyes on” using just the screen on the Ground Control Unit. Some were confused at first but all eventually got used to the spacial association with working the drone“sight unseen”.

Day Two

This day started with Madman-Actual going over what Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance really means and techniques of ISR that can be done with drones (or most any ISR platform). I won’t go into these here as it really is an in depth topic and between Madman and NcScout’s experiences, it is a block of instruction you don’t really want to miss. If you’ve had NcScout’s SigInt class, this goes and adds an air-asset side that opens up new ideas and techniques for the user.

Areas of Recon were discussed and the techniques of observation there were shortly there after put to the test as we attempted to locate and grid map other groups with the drones, this took some time as we (well I) was still working on getting proper drone control.

Various drone detectors were shown and utilized in this course and I got a much better understanding of how my own detector worked and techniques to spot drones that the detector didn’t alert on. If you are wanting to take this course and have a drone detector and/or a Tiny SA (or the Tiny SA Ultra), bring them. I regret not bringing my Tiny SA as techniques were demonstrated to watch both the steering frequencies and the video frequencies.

After SALUTE and SALT reports were explained, we were then broken into groups and told to go hunt each other with drones. But this being the G-Camp you know we had to put some Scout/Recce flavor in there. Find the other team (with a drone) give a report, then assault the objective. As with the Scout course it was “run with the gear you brought” (drones provided if you didn’t have one). This was repeated on a night raid where many were surprised that thermal was NOT the great advantage at night it is thought to be. It being a nice sunny warm day, the trees at night absolutely glowed under any thermal (drone or handheld) making target PID difficult.

Day Three

We started the last day with growing confidence in our done surveillance ability, so naturally it was time to talk about what to do if being observed by drones ourselves. Various counter drone techniques were discussed and taught as well as several myths dispelled. Basically it boiled down to time, you have it, the drone does not. Drone limitations we discovered over the course were brought up again as well as other limitations we didn’t get to observe.

The final exercise sent teams (Recce and Drone) to find, fix and destroy an OpFor. The Drone team did the initial find while the Recce inserted to get better eyes on with another drone. After reports were confirmed the “go ahead” was given the assaults began. It was an experience to do both the recce and be the drone control base, totally different roles with equally important jobs.

All in all I really enjoyed this course as I had a pretty basic knowledge of drones and their possible uses but I really expanded by knowledge by going. Madman-Actual and NcScout have the real world experiences with these platforms and their uses and it really shows. Now it being the G-Camp you might get some side knowledge (an impromptu 15 minute class on nuclear reactors is not out of the realm of possibility) and it will bring up some short comings in your set ups. Like did you put pyrethrins on your clothing or uniforms before you showed up for tick season (not on my jeans and t-shirt, I did not) and are you keeping hydrated while strolling the gently rolling hills of the G-Camp.

I look forward to seeing you out there for more classes in the future.