The Wall Street Journal reported that Ukrainian reconnaissance drones quickly located US armored vehicles during the Combined Resolve exercise, enabling follow-on strikes by explosive-carrying and first-person-view systems. US officials told the newspaper that the opposing force effectively eliminated the 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team of the 1st Cavalry Division, which included about 3,500 personnel from Fort Hood, Texas. The Ukrainian contingent operated as part of the opposing force in the simulation that ran across April and May.
The 412th Unmanned Systems Brigade, known as Nemesis, was formed in December 2023 as a battalion and has since expanded into a full brigade within Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces. Open-source military records show the unit carried out its first combat missions in February 2024 and later specialized in multidomain strikes against ground, air and maritime targets. During the German drill the brigade applied tactics refined through sustained operations in the conflict with Russia.
US troops initially struggled to counter the Ukrainian drones despite access to electronic warfare and counter-drone equipment, according to the Journal. American participants later improved their performance by employing stronger concealment, wider dispersal of units and enhanced electronic warfare measures. The newspaper reported that the scenario was repeated over two weeks to allow both sides to adjust their approaches.
A Hudson Institute assessment published in 2026 found that unmanned aerial systems caused 70 to 80 percent of personnel casualties in the Russia-Ukraine war during 2025.[[1]](https://www.hudson.org/technology/ukraines-drone-war-rise-machine-speed-adaptive-hyperwar-can-kasapoglu) Ukrainian production reached an estimated 4.5 million drones that year, more than two million of which were first-person-view models, a GIS Reports analysis stated.[[2]](https://www.gisreportsonline.com/r/drones-warfare-strategic-outcomes/) The Institute for the Study of War documented in May 2026 that Ukrainian forces had regained numerical drone superiority in several sectors with a 1.3-to-1 ratio over Russian strike drones.[[3]](https://understandingwar.org/research/russia-ukraine/ukraines-intermediate-range-strike-campaign-and-new-mechanized-attacks-herald-the-start-of-a-new-phase-of-the-war/)
Combined Resolve is a semi-annual US Army Europe exercise that focuses on large-scale ground combat readiness and multinational interoperability. The integration of Ukrainian unmanned systems personnel permitted NATO partners to incorporate battlefield lessons from more than three years of high-intensity drone operations. A related Wall Street Journal commentary from February 2026, following an Estonian exercise involving Ukrainian drone experts, noted that NATO formations faced challenges against similar small-drone tactics.[[4]](https://www.wsj.com/opinion/nato-has-seen-the-future-and-is-unprepared-887eaf0f?eafs_enabled=false)
The 412th Brigade has scaled up its capabilities since joining the Unmanned Systems Forces in 2024 and is known for strikes against Russian air defense assets using heavy bomber drones. Ukrainian forces have conducted thousands of daily drone missions across the front, targeting launch positions, storage sites and troop concentrations. Data from the German exercise is expected to contribute to updated NATO training protocols for countering prolific unmanned threats.
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