US Army Tests Drones and AI Battlefield Tech in Mojave Desert Urban Assault

At Fort Irwin in California, US soldiers took part in Project Convergence Capstone, a large Army exercise in the Mojave Desert focused on fighting a mock war while testing new weapons and technology. The assault centered on a simulated city called Razish, where troops had to clear streets and buildings while navigating obstacles including barbed wire, cars, and concrete blocks.

The key takeaway: the Army is not treating drones and software as separate demonstrations. It is testing whether they help soldiers make decisions while they are already under pressure in a complex urban fight.

Before assault forces entered the city, Blackhorse drones scouted the area, and a Black Widow quadcopter helped assess vehicles moving toward the fight. Business Insider reported that the drone could fly up to four kilometers away, extending the unit’s view beyond what soldiers could see from the ground.

But once the fight moved deeper into the city, soldiers used drones more sparingly, mainly to scout positions, terrain, and movement. That shift shows a practical limit: aerial tools can expand awareness, but urban combat still forces troops to solve close-range problems on foot and from vehicles.

The exercise reinforced a core battlefield lesson: armored vehicles and dismounted infantry depend on each other. Bradleys provided heavier weapons for farther threats, while soldiers on foot cleared buildings and protected vehicles from nearby enemies armed with anti-vehicle weapons.

Business Insider reported that enemy forces hid in alleys and upper floors, and one Bradley was successfully hit during the simulation. The lesson for readers is straightforward: advanced systems may improve awareness, but basic coordination, building-clearing, and positioning remain decisive.

Soldiers also tested the Army’s prototype Next Generation Command and Control, or NGC2, a software- and artificial intelligence-enabled battlefield network used on a chest-mounted smartphone. One soldier used it to check friendly locations and possible enemy positions inside the city.

The system did not work smoothly for everyone: another soldier said connection issues, possibly involving the system itself or electronic warfare and jamming, left it mostly unusable. Army leaders framed that mix of success and failure as the point of the exercise — a way to learn what is useful enough to keep and what is not.