DVIDS – Video – Oklahoma National Guardsmen face new adversary as they compete for the state’s Best Warrior

Competitors found themselves facing a new challenge at Oklahoma’s 2024 Best Warrior Competition when they were introduced to a up and coming adversary many of them haven’t faced.

The competitors were given 20 minutes to enter a heavily wooded area and tasked with camouflaging themselves before several of the sergeants major supporting the event began searching for them.

What the competitors were unaware of is the sergeants major would be aided by multiple unmanned aircraft systems, commonly referred to as drones, provided by the Oklahoma National Guard Counter Unmanned Aircraft Systems School.

The cUAS’s drones searched for the Guardsmen from various heights, peering through Camp Gruber’s dense foliage with infrared cameras, and at one point used a small first-person-view UAS to fly below the canopy level.

Col. Shane Riley, the director of military support for the Oklahoma National Guard, which oversees the cUAS School, said the event was included to …