Drones
US Army launches an FD-1 drone from an air-defence Stryker in Poland – why it is turning to cheap FPVs against swarms
The US Army in Europe tested the FD-1 FPV interceptor drone from an SGT Stout Stryker air-defence vehicle at Ustka, Poland, from November 2 to 6, as a cheap answer to drone swarms.
A small FPV (first-person view) drone taking off from an armoured Stryker is the image with which the US Army in Europe shows how it intends to counter drone swarms without spending expensive missiles. The test of the FD-1 took place from November 2 to 6, 2026 at the Ustka training area on Poland’s Baltic coast.
The test, code-named “Audacious Fury,” was carried out by the Tactics, Integration and Exploitation (TIE) Battery of the 5th Battalion, 4th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, part of the 52nd Air Defense Artillery Brigade. The aim was for the unit, at the lower tier of air defence, to gain cheap kill means in sufficient numbers against Group 1 to 3 drones and mass attacks, the 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command announced. Groups 1 to 3 cover the smaller and medium unmanned aircraft, starting with small commercial quadcopters.
From the Stinger to the FPV
In the photo the Army published, the FD-1 takes off on November 6 from an SGT Stout vehicle. This is the Maneuver Short-Range Air Defense (M-SHORAD) system, renamed in 2024 in honour of Sgt. Mitchell Stout, the only US Army air defender awarded the Medal of Honor. As the renaming announcement explains, it combines guns, missiles and sensors on a Stryker armoured vehicle and covers drones, helicopters and aircraft. The 5th Battalion, 4th Regiment was the first unit to receive it. Adding a drone guided by an operator gives the same vehicle one more, much cheaper means.
The battalion commander, Lt. Col. John Vervill, explained it in terms of cost: there are many systems for mass swarms, which let the Army “keep the cost at reasonable levels” so that expensive munitions are not used inefficiently. His plan is to standardise the training and engagement procedure and extend the capability “widely, across all units.”
Air defenders become drone pilots
The TIE battery is not just testing the system. It is also writing the tactics, techniques and procedures by which a soldier with no experience will learn to fly an FPV drone, together with an operator certification system. “None of my soldiers imagined they would fly drones when they enlisted as air defense crew members. Now they are certified on the SGT Stout and flying drones over the Baltic,” said Staff Sgt. Felix Aguilar.
The battery’s personnel will then become instructors and carry the training and certification to other units of US Army Europe and Africa (USAREUR-AF). The 52nd Brigade serves as the air and missile defence coordinator in the European theatre.
The test in Poland is part of a broader shift by Western armies towards cheap counter-drone means. Days earlier NATO opened a catalogue of counter-drone systems without new tenders, while in the Middle East CENTCOM received more than 25,000 drones and counter-drone systems during the year. For the vehicle itself and its variants, see our analysis of the Stryker.