Spc. Basil Holland, an infantryman with 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, maneuvers a drone attached with a 3D-printed grenade dropper at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, Germany, on Oct. 9, 2025. (Lydia Gordon/Stars and Stripes)

HOHENFELS, Germany — Spc. Basil Holland looked on with keen interest this week as a Performance Drone Works C100 quadcopter with an invention of his attached took to the sky carrying four simulated grenades.

Holland created a new 3D-printed ordnance dropper called the “Widowmaker,” which was getting additional field action in test runs in the forested expanses of Bavaria.

“We looked at what a lot of people are doing in Ukraine, and we were like, ‘How can we utilize this system?’ “ Holland said. “So we designed everything from scratch.”

As the drone hovered 350 feet above a vehicle at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center on Thursday, two specks fell from the aircraft, followed by a thud on the vehicle’s hood.

Soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment were testing the durability of the Widowmaker and learning the controls on the new Anduril Bolt-M one-way attack drone.

A C100 drone flies toward an Infantry Squad Vehicle used as a target in grenade-dropping practice at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, Germany, on Oct. 9, 2025. (Lydia Gordon/Stars and Stripes)

A C100 drone carries a dropper attachment for four grenades Oct. 9, 2025. at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, Germany, where soldiers practiced hitting targets with practice grenades. (Lydia Gordon/Stars and Stripes)

Spc. Basil Holland of the 502nd Infantry Regiment prepares to fly a C100 drone fashioned with a 3D-printed grenade dropper called the Widowmaker at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, Germany, on Oct. 9, 2025. (Lydia Gordon/Stars and Stripes)

The Bolt-M uses artificial intelligence to track targets before silently slamming into them at a terrifying pace.

The assessments ahead of Combined Resolve, an annual multinational exercise that starts Tuesday and will run sporadically through summer 2026, were evidence that not even a government shutdown can stop the evolution of drone technology.

The growing reliance on drones and autonomous systems to fight modern wars was born from battlefields in Ukraine and has quickly become integrated into Army doctrine through the modernization initiatives dubbed Transforming in Contact, and the counter-drone Project Flytrap.

The dropper is not a new concept, company commander Capt. Jacob Moberly said. The Islamic State militant group was using similar systems in Iraq a decade ago, but what makes the simple dropper special is its ability to be mass-produced, he said.

The Widowmaker can be printed in house with materials costing less than $50 and scaled for use by any infantry platoon that has the C100 and access to a 3D printer, he said.

The Army has signed three separate contracts with Performance Drone Works for an unspecified number of the portable heavy-lift quadcopters. The last was on Sept. 16 for $20.9 million.

Spc. Basil Holland of the 502nd Infantry Regiment controls a drone as part of practice with a grenade dropper attachment at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, Germany, on Oct. 9, 2025. (Lydia Gordon/Stars and Stripes)

Soliders attach a 3D-printed grenade dropper on a C100 drone for target practice at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, Germany, on Oct. 9, 2025. (Lydia Gordon/Stars and Stripes)

Soldiers at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, Germany, watch as a C100 drone lands after a grenade drop on Oct. 9, 2025. (Lydia Gordon/Stars and Stripes)

A soldier watches an Anduril Bolt-M drone during a demonstration at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, Germany, on Oct. 9, 2025. (Lydia Gordon/Stars and Stripes)

The unit previously used the dropper with training grenades at a live-fire range in Poland in August. The C100 dropped two smoke grenades into a trench.

Once the smoke obscured the simulated enemy’s vision, two blue body grenades followed. Then an assault team entered the dugout. The dropper is equipped to hold M67 fragmentation grenades.

The unit also has first-person attack drones and the Anduril Ghost-X reconnaissance aircraft. Integrating drones with traditional systems and move-and-shoot tactics has made the force deadlier, Moberly said.

The soldiers in Holland’s regiment hope his Widowmaker will soon be sent out and adopted by every infantry unit that has the same drone.

“Right now, we’re at a tipping point in technology and we need to meet that challenge,” Moberly said. “It all starts from the bottom up with soldiers being empowered, like Specialist Holland, to actually implement their ideas into real practice.”