The Army’s special operations school has graduated its first class of MOS 390A Robotics Technicians and is preparing a second class for a final field exercise that will test its ability to reprogram robotic systems under battlefield constraints, according to Breaking Defense reporting.
The exercise is scheduled for the first week of November at Clarke Range, Alabama. Army officials said candidates will face simulated electronic warfare intended to disrupt radio-control links, deny GPS and cut access to cloud-based artificial-intelligence tools. The exercise is designed to force soldiers to modify systems using equipment and software available in the field.
Maj. Gen. Jason Slider, commander of the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School, described the goal as building soldiers who can adapt robotic equipment to the mission, enemy and terrain. Slider and Chief Warrant Officer Michael Updike discussed the program at an October 13 event held during the Association of the U.S. Army conference; the event listing identifies both officers as speakers and describes the session as focused on future special-warfare teams.
The 390A personnel are not being trained simply as drone operators or conventional programmers. Updike characterized them as system integrators who connect Army drones, ground robots and networks, while adapting those systems to changing threats.
In the first class’s final exercise, students equipped a quadcopter with a $1,000 high-definition camera and connected it to a decentralized mesh network so data could route around jammed nodes, Breaking Defense reported. The school also intends to expose candidates to repeated failures, including scenarios in which they must try again after an initial solution does not work.
The program reflects Army concerns about operating where GPS, radio links and internet-connected services may be unavailable or unsafe to use. The reporting describes the training as an operational and educational effort; it does not identify a procurement contract, a fielding decision across the wider Army or a cost for establishing the specialty.
The training also sits within a documented Army-wide assignment plan. In an October 13 official announcement, the Army said experimental autonomous formations would receive some of its first 390A Robotic Technicians, expanding specialist assignments beyond special operations units. That statement supports the wider role planned for the technicians; it does not independently verify the classroom and field-exercise details reported by Breaking Defense.