At Fort Stewart in Georgia, the Army is hastening a modernization push that mirrors the Trump era’s emphasis on speed and private sector innovation.

Spc. Lathan Thomley joined the Army to become a cavalry scout, and now he spends hours on a laptop simulator before piloting drones over the training area.

He is part of the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team’s Transformation in Contact initiative, or TIC, where junior soldiers at the front lines test new drone capabilities and help shape Army doctrine from the ground up.

In brigades built around tanks and heavy firepower, the TIC approach reflects how Ukraine’s battlefield lessons are prompting leaders to rethink how armored formations move and survive under new surveillance.

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Selected soldiers start with everyday computer simulation programs before transitioning to real flights.

The approach is designed to let operators shape how equipment is employed, rather than waiting for formal schools and bureaucratic timelines.

The TIC initiative marks a shift toward experimentation where soldiers test technology first and influence how it is used before doctrine and acquisition catch up. Selected brigades are given access to emerging innovations like drones, electronic warfare equipment and new communications devices.

Changes to drone capabilities within the brigade are informed through feedback from operators driving decisions about how equipment is used, how much equipment is fielded and how drones play into the armor-centric battle.

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Liftoff is a commercially available drone flying simulator that allows all types of users to fly drones in first-person view.

It can be purchased from Steam, a gaming platform that can be downloaded by soldiers and civilians alike. First-person view lets a soldier watch and steer the drone as if they are flying on the front of it.

Soldiers at Fort Stewart have been training to fly while wearing goggles, an immersive experience that can be disorienting and produce motion sickness.

“We really train on regular computers — it’s a little gaming app called Liftoff — and you fly drones on there,” Thomley said while demonstrating a small reconnaissance quadcopter’s capabilities on an unusually cool Georgia day. “From that, you learn how a drone moves and how you need to angle it to make it go a certain way.” The controllers are inverted so it’s very confusing at first,” Thomley said.

If a user wants the drone to go up, they have to look down, and vice versa. Once a soldier masters flying in the simulation, they can practice piloting the real thing. The approach marks a departure from the Army’s traditional training model, where new capabilities often move through formal schoolhouses and standardized programs before reaching operational units.

The TIC approach lets soldiers test technology first and shape how it is used before doctrine and acquisition catch up. 2ABCT, meanwhile, is part of the second TIC iteration, which is shifting the focus to Armor Brigade Combat Teams and division-level assets to apply lessons learned from Russia’s war on Ukraine.

The experimentation comes as Army leaders study how drones have drastically altered the battlefield overseas, where both sides use unmanned aerial vehicles to scout and strike. “When you talk about looking at our adversaries across the world, everyone is watching the battles there in Ukraine,” said Col. Alexis Perez-Cruz, the brigade’s commander.

Perez-Cruz added that the Army — and the armor community — is consistently studying the conflict to see how new technology will change future wars, asking “How do we use our imagination to look at the future and be able to fight the way that we’re seeing it out there, and imagining how we will be able to fight in large-scale combat operations?”

For soldiers like Thomley, the shift is a new skill set layered onto a traditional cavalry mission — to spot and understand the battlefield before the enemy. But instead of binoculars pressed into tired eyes peering out of a foxhole, that view increasingly comes from a camera mounted to a drone hovering hundreds of feet in the sky.

This is not merely a tech experiment; it is a strategic recalibration designed to deter rivals by showcasing a fast and flexible force. The real test lies in how quickly the Army can translate lessons from the simulator floor to the dusty ranges and, ultimately, to the battlefield.

In this vision, unmanned systems do more than scout; they inform decisions that determine whether a unit can maneuver, survive, and prevail in large-scale combat operations.

The intent behind TIC, and the broader modernization push it embodies, is to keep American armor ahead of pacing threats.

Under a Trump-inspired blueprint and the type of leadership advocated by Pete Hegseth, this approach prioritizes speed, interoperability with private-sector tech, and a clearer path from insight to fielding. The goal is to produce a force that is not only ready for today but ready for future warfighting demands. Proponents argue this is essential to avoiding stalemate in high intensity battles that could define a generation.

By embracing drone-enabled reconnaissance and rapid experimentation, the Army signals a commitment to deterrence through superior preparation. The result, supporters say, is a force that can outpace adversaries who already exploit unmanned systems in battle.

Thomley’s work on the simulator floor, followed by real-world flights, embodies a new era of combat readiness. It is an era where the battlefield is seen first with cameras in the sky, and only then with rifles in hand.

And it is the kind of disciplined modernization that aligns with a strong national defense, stronger leadership, and the proven instincts of a leadership team that believes America must stay ahead of any threat.

As the defense world watches, this path could prove decisive in shaping how the United States fights and wins in the century ahead.

The argument is not merely technical; it is political and strategic. It reflects a belief that American strength rests on speed, initiative, and the ability to adapt swiftly to the lessons of any conflict.

If that remains the guiding principle, then the Army’s drone-first, user-led experiments may well be the decisive advantage the country needs in a dangerous world.

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