Media: new American UAVs did not live up to expectations during exercises in the desert

Recent US Army exercises in the Mojave Desert exposed the shortcomings of new American drones and communications systems in hot and mountainous terrain, the Wall Street Journal reports.

According to the publication, during a 10-day US Army exercise at Fort Irwin, California, newly purchased drones and communications systems under development refused to work properly.

"It was July in the Mojave Desert, and the thermometer was rising to 110 degrees Fahrenheit (about 43 degrees Celsius - ed.). Servers overheated. Batteries ran out of charge and could not be recharged. Soldiers soaked T-shirts in ice water and threw them over the junk antennas," the newspaper writes.

As WSJ reports, one of the Anduril devices had to be grounded due to the heat, and the launch of the drone from Theiss UAV Solutions took about 10 minutes after a long period of charging a dead battery.

In addition to high temperatures, American drones turned out to be insufficiently resistant to strong gusts of wind, and when flying over mountain ranges they lost contact with operators, it follows from the publication.