At the end of last week, news spread globally from the Wall Street Journal that Ukrainian forces defeated American forces in the Combined Resolve exercises in Germany. This needs to be examined in more detail, especially in light of historical events.
This is not the first time NATO forces have been “overwhelmed” by our Ukrainian drone pilots during exercises. Partner countries continuously attempt to conduct these exercises because the world and warfare do not stand still. Yet, European and American forces are still somehow lagging. Their military and political leadership speak to this. It’s not only western journalists who constantly discuss it.
Over a year ago, during the Hedgehog 2025 exercises (involving over 16,000 troops from 12 NATO countries), the impressive advantage of drones on the battlefield was demonstrated.
Two details immediately: no one officially spoke about these disappointing exercises for them. This was reported then and now through the Wall Street Journal. The second detail: Hedgehog 2025 was held in Estonia, and the current exercises are in Germany. Many Block countries were present again. This time, the American tank brigade suffered. In Estonia, it was the French tactical battalion group and a British armored brigade.
In Germany, the crews of the 412th Nemesis Brigade assisted the allies in training. Tanks from the Texan American brigade were constantly being “revived and returned to duty” after being struck by Ukrainian pilots. The WSJ material indeed covers this.
In Estonia, one Nemesis bomber crew and two FPV strike crews were formed from instructors of the Rarog Academy. Four military personnel and eight veteran instructors. In half a day, they conditionally destroyed 2 NATO battalions. This was truly a historic event last year.
By the way, the Rarog Academy is not the training center of the 427th SBS Rarog Brigade as you might think. It is a separate academy of the Rarog company, known for its bulletproof vests, but since 2022, it has also been producing drones.
NATO military leadership doesn’t particularly like reporting such exercise results to their political leadership. However, journalists from international media became involved. The French seriously engaged in the fall of 2025. At a meeting in Paris, Macron was informed about the results of the Estonian exercises by Rarog founder Yuriy Fedorov. But conclusions were also drawn by the British. It was after those exercises that the decision was made to withdraw Challenger 2 tanks from Estonia.
In the Armed Forces of Ukraine, there has been an OPFOR battalion for a long time. They are now also fighting, but their main task when created was to always play the enemy in exercises. A whole battalion that is meant to fully replicate the actions and capabilities of the Russians in BTN – battalion or brigade tactical exercises.
What do we see now? In NATO exercises, Ukrainian soldiers play the same Opposing Force – the hypothetical enemy. And we no longer need to play a battalion of roosters in defense against which an American tank division is advancing. We send a dozen instructor-pilots (today from Nemezis, last year Nemezis and Rarog) and a few officers – and turn the exercises upside down.
NATO standards are stable. There are many of them, but they are not adaptive. Within a year since the last failed exercises, the tank division has strengthened with electronic warfare means, but has not learned how to move tanks silently and dust-free on the battlefield. Our pilots saw the movements in advance and immediately flew to strike the targets. Because such are the realities of combat – you see movement and immediately send drones to destroy it. See – shoot, as the first commander of the Special Forces, Sukhovsky, said.
And the latest American electronic warfare means are powerless against fiber optic drones, and only the British really know about heavy bombers. Their drone Malloy with Austrian roots even helps us. The rest of NATO’s troops are almost powerless against drones.
I don’t want to say that NATO forces are unprepared. They have many more means to “influence” enemy pilots. Intelligence, identifying take-off points, aviation or artillery – they can do all of this. The main thing from these exercises is to see the speed of adaptation.
But everyone is learning. We learn, the roosters learn, which means Americans will learn. The main thing here is speed.
And there should be more such exercises. Whether we are in NATO or another alliance – we are already showing our strength. Adaptability, technology, drones, and speed of scaling. And we play OpFor perfectly because no one knows the swamp forces better than us. And they are now the main enemy of Europe – proof can be called Kallas’ words about the next sanctions package, which will be the toughest for Russia.
Photo: 66th Separate Mechanized Brigade named after Prince Mstislav the Brave
