In addition to operating drones, national military officers and soldiers must also have the ability to produce and maintain drones.
[Reporter Tu Jumin/Reported from Taipei] In response to the trend of modern army building, the National Army is focusing on the development of drones. Not only do officers and soldiers need to learn drone operation techniques, but they must also learn production and maintenance work. According to the latest "Defense Online" episode of the National Army's "Juguang Garden", the Army's Unmanned Systems Training Command uses the "self-made, self-repair, self-flight" model, requiring officers and soldiers to assemble drones from loose parts and use 3D printing to self-research and modify components such as lens mounts, antenna bases, training ammunition and bomb-mounted payload mounting parts to enhance the troops' ability to make ready-to-use, rapid repairs and sustained operations on the front line.
According to the content of the National Defense Online program, the Army Unmanned Systems Training Command currently conducts training on "suicide", "bomb-delivery" and FPV immersive drones according to combat types. In addition to basic flight and strike capabilities, officers and soldiers must also learn to assemble and repair the aircraft themselves, and even use 3D printing technology to produce parts.
Sergeant Xu of the 21st Artillery Command of the Army said in the program that the army will use 3D printers to produce lens holders, antenna bases and training ammunition for bomb-delivery drones; suicide drones can also use 3D printing to produce lens holders and bomb-mounted payload mounting parts, and then integrate them with ammunition and triggering devices. This kind of "self-made, self-study, self-fly" training is to equip officers and soldiers with the ability to repair and replace parts on their own, ensuring that the troops are ready for use on the front line and have sustained combat energy.
In addition to equipment maintenance capabilities, the program mentioned that pilots must also undergo high-intensity practical training. The annual training and evaluation is divided into four subjects: "Attack on fixed targets", "Attack on moving targets", "Attack on aerial targets" and "Precision bomb delivery". Pilots must first evaluate the battlefield spectrum, then cross obstacles, search for targets and carry out precise attacks.
As for the FPV drone that has become the focus of everyone on the Ukrainian battlefield, since it does not have height-fixing and point-fixing functions, the pilot must operate it manually from a first-person perspective, which can easily lead to spatial disorientation. Therefore, it is necessary to first establish muscle memory and basic spatial concepts through a simulator before entering the actual mission environment for practice.
The national army also continues to integrate drones with traditional firepower, and conducts live-fire drills combined with heavy artillery shooting in various combat zones and annual precision missile shooting. Drones can not only transmit images back in real time, track targets and report strike effects, but they can also become a means of firepower strike, allowing target detection, tracking, attack and combat result assessment to form a more complete "kill chain", gradually establishing a more mobile, precise and resilient unmanned combat system.
