Ukrainian drone operators defeated a U.S. brigade during exercises in Germany – WSJ
Ukrainian servicemen from the 412th Brigade of the Unmanned Systems Forces (UAS) Nemesis “destroyed” a U.S. armored brigade during the Combined Resolve international exercises, which took place in April and May at a training range in Germany. About 3,500 U.S. military personnel took part in the exercises, attempting—with the support of standard electronic warfare systems—to attack a simulated enemy protected by Ukrainian drones.
According to sources, the heavy armored vehicles kicked up clouds of dust and were easily detected by Ukrainian crews, who “destroyed” them so quickly that the vehicles had to be regularly “brought back” into formation to continue the training. Only after repeating the scenario multiple times did the U.S. troops learn to better camouflage themselves, spread out, and counter the drones. Later, when it shifted to offensive operations on the side of U.S. forces, the Nemesis unit also demonstrated high effectiveness.
This is not an isolated incident: in May 2025, Ukrainian UAV operators similarly “crushed” British and Estonian forces during exercises in the Baltic region, and this past spring, they defeated units from Sweden and other NATO countries.
This was reported by The Wall Street Journal.
During the “Aurora-26” military exercises in Sweden, Ukrainian drone operators, acting as a simulated adversary, forced NATO units to revise their tactics several times.
Ukrainians are training military personnel from Canada and Latvia.
