Army Staff Sgt. Matthew Daliege, an M109A7 Paladin section chief, left, and driver Pfc. Benjamin Cosby camouflage their mobile artillery system during exercise Combined Resolve at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, Germany, on May 20, 2025. (Matthew M. Burke/Stars and Stripes)

HOHENFELS, Germany — Army Staff Sgt. Matthew Daliege’s mobile artillery system was exposed for less than a minute as it darted across a dusty road and into thick forest at the sprawling U.S.-run military training area outside this Bavarian town.

The crew covered the M109A7 Paladin with branches plucked from the trees Tuesday that had wrapped themselves around their tanklike vehicle as they pulled into the brush.

There they awaited their next tasking during the second part of exercise Combined Resolve. They had simulated firing their 155 mm howitzer approximately 100 times in five days.

“The concept is hiding, keeping foliage-covered, keeping the gun covered so drones don’t spot us,” Daliege said during a brief pause.

The emphasis on the drone threat has not yet reached the military’s National Training Center at Fort Irwin in Southern California, added Daliege, the section chief in charge of firing rounds.

Under the Army’s new fighting doctrine, which is known as transforming in contact and was born from the lessons of the Russia-Ukraine war, mechanized armor will no longer line up in wedge formations and is always on the lookout for drones, he said.

Army Pfc. Benjamin Cosby, an M109A7 Paladin driver, camouflages the mobile artillery piece during exercise Combined Resolve at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, Germany, on May 20, 2025. (Matthew M. Burke/Stars and Stripes)

Army Staff Sgt. Matthew Daliege, an M109A7 Paladin section chief, rides atop the mobile artillery system during a brief moment of exposure in exercise Combined Resolve at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, Germany, on May 20, 2025. (Matthew M. Burke/Stars and Stripes)

Army Staff Sgt. Richard Levanti, a drone operator attached to 2nd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, flies a first-person-view drone during exercise Combined Resolve in Hohenfels, Germany, on May 20, 2025. Often called one-way or attack drones, they can be outfitted with mortars, mines or other high explosives to take out enemy armor before it comes into contact with U.S. or NATO forces. (Matthew M. Burke/Stars and Stripes)

Army Staff Sgt. Richard Levanti and Sgt. Patrick Waters, both drone operators attached to 2nd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, prepare a first-person-view drone for takeoff during exercise Combined Resolve at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, Germany, on May 20, 2025. (Matthew M. Burke/Stars and Stripes)

The Paladin crew members are just a few of the 4,000 troops from the U.S., Italy, Kosovo and Poland taking part in Combined Resolve’s current phase, running through June 3 at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels.

Sleep for the members of Charlie Battery, 1st Battalion, 41st Field Artillery Regiment has been elusive because the opposition force’s drones mostly come in at night.

“We get into a firing point, we occupy, then we hide until it’s time to shoot; then once we have to shoot, we roll out,” Daliege said. “That’s been the name of the game and it’s been working.”

The first part of the annual exercise, over the winter, included about the same number of troops from the U.S., Poland, the United Kingdom and Norway.

For part two, the Army took transforming in contact a step further, indoctrinating its first mechanized brigade in the fighting concept, said Col. Jim Armstrong, commander of 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division.

Poland’s 18th Mechanized Infantry Division is operating as the high command for the exercise.

Transforming in contact focuses on fielding mobile, adaptable and tech-savvy soldiers who both use and combat drones.

Capt. Chace Scarboro, chief of protection and a counter-drone expert with 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, scans the wilderness while holding a Dronebuster jamming gun during exercise Combined Resolve in Hohenfels, Germany, on May 20, 2025. (Matthew M. Burke/Stars and Stripes)

Tank crew members from 5th Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment are shown during exercise Combined Resolve at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, Germany, on May 20, 2025. From left are loader Cpl. Dalton Suggs, gunner Sgt. Andrew Farmer, driver Spc. Caleb Hall and tank commander Capt. Matthew Lund. (Matthew M. Burke/Stars and Stripes)

A drone operator attached to U.S. Army 2nd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment shows off first-person-view drones being used during exercise Combined Resolve at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, Germany, on May 20, 2025. (Matthew M. Burke/Stars and Stripes)

Soldiers gather for a tactical planning session during exercise Combined Resolve at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, Germany, on May 20, 2025. (Matthew M. Burke/Stars and Stripes)

Capt. Matthew Lund, a tank commander with 5th Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, shows a simulated satchel charge May 20, 2025, that he confiscated from an eliminated opposition force during exercise Combined Resolve in Hohenfels, Germany. (Matthew M. Burke/Stars and Stripes)

For Combined Resolve, the brigade added squads with one-way attack drones, a drone lab that 3D-printed replacement drones in the field and a second electronic warfare platoon that operates alongside reconnaissance.

Field artillery observers, first-person-view drone operators and anti-tank teams were enmeshed together to wreak havoc on enemy armor.

“Typically, in an armored brigade combat team, you have to choose between effective command and control and survivable command and control,” Armstrong said. “We have some tools that we’ve been working with over the past couple (of) days ... that can really get us into the best of both worlds.”

Nearby, M1A2 Abrams tank commander Capt. Matthew Lund of the 5th Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment displayed his latest prize, a simulated satchel charge that the opposition force attempted to place on his tank under the cover of darkness.

The crewman on watch spotted the tiger-striped attackers.

“Wake up, boys; it’s time to fight,” he recalled saying before they eliminated the threat. “It’s my satchel charge now.”

The crew will soon receive tethered drones that cannot be jammed, Lund said.

All the new measures are necessary on the modern battlefield, loader Cpl. Dalton Suggs added.

We’re the “biggest target out there,” he said. “Big metal box, you can’t really miss it.”