Video

Video by Capt. Jennifer French

B-Roll: 173rd Airborne Brigade Employs Self-Built FPV Drones to Strike Simulated Enemy Targets During Swift Response 2025

173rd Airborne Brigade

May 18, 2025 | 0:45

U.S. Army paratroopers assigned to the 173rd Airborne Brigade operated and detonated live First Person View (FPV) drones against a simulated dismounted enemy and an SUV-sized autonomous target at Pabradė Training Area, Lithuania, during Swift Response 2025, May 18, 2025. The FPV drone—built and configured in-house by paratroopers—demonstrates low-cost lethality and precision effects in complex terrain, expanding the brigade’s ability to integrate emerging technologies into maneuver warfare.

Swift Response is part of the U.S. Army’s DEFENDER 25 series, a large-scale training exercise conducted from May 11 to June 24, 2025, across 13 European countries with 29 Allied and partner nations. The exercise reinforces NATO interoperability, readiness, and deterrence through joint forcible entry operations, long-range fires, and multi-domain integration.

As the U.S. Army’s only forward-deployed Airborne Brigade in Europe, the 173rd Airborne Brigade serves as the Contingency Response Force for U.S. European Command, postured to deploy on short notice to defend NATO’s eastern flank.

(U.S. Army SKYDIO drone video footage by Sgt. Tristan Youngberg)