The U.S. Army’s 2nd Cavalry Regiment is preparing for the next round of Project Flytrap, a series of exercises aimed at improving the military’s ability to counter unmanned aircraft systems (UAS).
The fifth iteration of the effort, known as Project Flytrap 5.0, is scheduled for May 1-15 in Lithuania, Col. Donald R. Neal, commander of the regiment, told reporters today.
Project Flytrap is a U.S. Army-led initiative focused on rapidly testing and refining counter-UAS. The exercises are intended to support the Eastern Flank Deterrence Line in Europe by integrating new, low-cost, and portable sensors and defensive technologies designed to counter evolving drone threats.
The upcoming iteration will emphasize network resilience and battlefield realism, including the ability to operate systems without relying on cloud connectivity.
Capt. Gabriel Glazer, the signal officer for the 2nd Cavalry Regiment’s Field Artillery Squadron, said the exercise will test equipment capable of processing sensor data locally.
“Something that we’re really trying to do with Flytrap for this iteration is the network and its ability to operate denied integrated,” Glazer said. “We’re getting a couple pieces of equipment that have all of the sensor ingest and deconfliction abilities that can operate without needing to be connected to the internet or the cloud.”
“We’re moving those capabilities from the cloud to what we’re calling the tactical edge,” he added.
Neal said the design of Flytrap 5.0 will simulate conditions similar to those seen in the war in Ukraine, including higher numbers of drones and electronic warfare systems.
“The biggest difference between Project Flytrap 5.0 and previous Flytraps is the exercise design,” Neal said. “What I charged my staff with was to recreate a day in the life on the battlefield in Ukraine.”
The exercise will include about 60 pieces of equipment from multiple vendors, creating greater demands on communications networks and providing additional data on system performance.
“The various types of UAS that are in the air, and the different equipment from vendors on the ground, will give us some stress on our network that we didn’t have at previous Flytraps,” Neal said. “That will give us feedback on what we need to do to improve our networks.”