New Scout Unit That Heavily Leverages Drones, Electronic Warfare Tested By U.S. Army

Last month, a group of 80 U.S. Army soldiers in a recently formed unit used attack and reconnaissance drones, electronic warfare (EW) equipment, and support from anti-tank weapons, mortarmen and snipers to evaluate a new way to detect and engage enemy forces. Dubbed the Multi Purpose Company (MPC), the unit was created under the Army’s Transformation in Contact (TIC) program designed to speed up the process by which soldiers get the equipment and doctrine they need to fight modern wars.

The concept was informed by lessons from the ongoing war in Ukraine, now in its fourth year. The MPC “integrates [drone] capability with long-range fires with EW all in the same organization,” Army Lt. Gen. Charles Costanza, commanding general of V Corps, told The War Zone during a reporter roundtable at the Association of the U.S. Army annual conference in Washington, D.C. last year. “That’s really coming straight out of watching what’s going on in Ukraine.”

The MPC concept was evaluated by troops from the 10th Mountain Division’s 3rd Combat Brigade Team (3BCT), known as “The Patriots,” during Exercise Combined Resolve 25-1 at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, Germany.

A soldier aims a Advanced Anti-Tank Weapon System-Medium, FGM- 148 Javelin during the defense from tank lane during an exercise. (U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Jadyn Merritt) Pfc. Jadyn Merritt

“You can look at it as like a movement-to-contact type company,” Army Maj. Matthew Marshall, the division’s Force Management Officer, told The War Zone exclusively. “Basically, this is the smallest element out front of the battalion and the brigade, looking to find and fix the enemy forces. As necessary, they have the capacity and capability through mortars, through anti-tank weapons and through other augmentation to bring combat power to bear to defeat or attrit enemy forces.”

The goal is to peel away several layers of command “to decrease the amount of time from eyes on the target to lethal effects,” Marshall said. Augmented by an EW team and a Fire Support Team (FiST), the MPC conducted reconnaissance with ground, aerial, and electromagnetic sensors, the Army pointed out.

The MPC concept calls for these soldiers to operate a short distance ahead of the rest of the brigade, Marshall added.

“There is nothing in doctrine right now, because this is a test concept, but our initial best guesstimate is that we’re looking at roughly like three to four kilometers in front of the main body,” he said. That’s based on “our analysis of what capabilities – both from indirect fires and our new Anduril Ghost UAS – that they’re utilizing.”

For the testing, the MPC was divided into three platoons, Marshall explained. 

The scout platoon, with about 31 soldiers, was made up of scout snipers and troops using Javelin anti-tank weapons and other weapons capabilities, as well as PDW’s C-100 surveillance drones, according to Marshall.

The scout platoons operate nine-passenger ISV-9s (infantry squad vehicles that it is evaluating.

The Patriots used and evaluated the Army’s new nine-passenger Infantry Support Vehicle. (Patriots)

The mortar platoon, with about 23 soldiers, has Humvees and trailers, 120 millimeter mortars, and a fire direction sergeant to help coordinate indirect fire with the scouts.

The Lethal Unmanned Systems (LUS) platoon, with about 26 soldiers, uses Switchblade 600 loitering munitions as strike weapons and Anduril Ghost drones for surveillance. It is also equipped with Stingers MANPADS and Drone Defenders to counter adversary drones.

The MPC platoons were augmented by two other units. One was a four-person EW team using Beast+ jamming systems. The other was a FiST, made up of a Fire Support Officer, a Fire Support Non-Commissioned Officer, and three radio operators. They boosted the MPC’s ability to call in artillery and other fire support.

“So if you can envision the flow, you would have your UAS out front,” Marshall told us. “Behind that, you would have your scout platoon, and then behind that, you would have your mortars and then behind that you would have the rest of the battalion.”

Mortarmen from the 3rd Brigade Combat Team in action. (Patriots)

Decidedly absent from the testing was the use of first-person view (FPV) attack drones that have become ubiquitous on both sides of the war in Ukraine. “I can’t speak to the thought process or the rationality behind the drones or what’s going on in Ukraine,” Marshall said.

The MPC was tested to see if it could replace capabilities lost when the Army underwent a major restructuring last year to move toward Large Scale Combat Operations, Marshall noted. Among other things, the service did away with the Infantry Brigade Combat Team (ICBT) Cavalry Squadrons. 

“The Army also made a decision to remove the [drones] that were organic to the brigade, such as the Shadows and the Ravens, to make way for future capabilities at echelon,” he stated.

Army Deputy Chief of Staff Lt. Gen Joseph A. Ryan looks at the view from a drone controller. (Patriots)

Originally called a Strike Company, MPC was born last year out of the need to ”maximize the Infantry Brigade Combat Team construct…by meeting the intent of the Army” in the wake of that restructuring, Marshall stated. In Army speak, it was called ARSTRUC 25-29. The Strike Company name was changed as part of an overall Army naming convention effort.

The Army was “looking at getting leaner, lighter and more lethal,” Marshall said. The service, he added, was investigating how it could “maintain that value within the confines of what the Army has given us. And so through our analysis, that’s how we arrived at the Multi Purpose Company.

A U.S. Army soldier assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Infantry Regiment, searches for simulated enemy forces during Exercise Combined Resolve 25-1 at the Hohenfels Training Area, Joint Multinational Readiness Center, Germany, January 29, 2025. (U.S. Army Sgt. Donovon Lynch)

The timeline for determining how well the MPC concept works is up in the air, Marshall noted. However, though the testing concluded, it will live on in the brigade, he suggested.

The Army “has directed that their support of divisions look for a means to continue to test and prototype organizations such as this Multi Purpose Company concept,” he told us. “As of right now, there is no intent from the division or the brigade to dismantle the Multi Purpose Company within 3rd Brigade, so they will continue to go to training exercises, collective training, etc, with this construct that they’re currently in.”

Two other divisions, the 101st and the 25th, are evaluating similar units. That was all ordered under the previous Biden administration. President Donald Trump has ordered his new Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, to conduct a sweeping review of all Pentagon programs. Whether the Army’s new leadership will still want to continue this program remains to be seen, but it does fit in with the idea of a more agile, flexible, and lethal force dynamic that is better fit for tomorrow’s wars, which appears to pair with what Hegseth is looking to achieve.

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