Army Spc. Andrew Santana, a cavalry scout with 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, flies a Skydio X10 drone before an event on the final day of U.S. Army Europe and Africa's first-ever Best Drone Warfighter Competition in Grafenwoehr, Germany, on Dec. 10, 2025. (Lydia Gordon/Stars and Stripes)

GRAFENWOEHR, Germany — Staff Sgt. Eric Navarro and three teammates quietly crept through the undergrowth at a vast Army training ground in rural Bavaria until they found a small gap in the forest canopy to send their Vesper one-way attack drone aloft.

The quadcopter whirred toward a shipping container town Wednesday in the Grafenwoehr Training Area, which was hosting the inaugural U.S. Army Europe and Africa Best Drone Warfighter Competition.

After identifying several mannequin targets, Navarro’s team piloted the aircraft through a window at just the precise moment and into a net next to a mannequin sitting at a desk, simulating a strike.

“We always launch from cover and concealment and then utilize gaps in tree lines for radio line of sight to maintain the link with our birds,” Navarro said as soon as the course was completed, his face slathered in camouflage paint.

His attention then turned to the competition.

“Good, quiet rivalries are what make the best units,” he added.

The quartet from the Joint Multinational Readiness Center’s 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment in nearby Hohenfels was the second-place finisher and top-performing American team in the contest. A team from Spain took the overall prize.

Drones have become the focal point of Army training exercises in Grafenwoehr and Hohenfels in recent years.

The competition, which played out over three days, symbolized both how mainstream drone warfare has become in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, and how important it is to the Army’s wholesale transformation in doctrine and tactics.

Soldiers from 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division competing in the U.S. Army Europe and Africa Best Drone Warfighter Competition run systems checks on their Skydio X10 drone before an event at the Grafenwoehr Training Area in Germany on Dec. 10, 2025. (Lydia Gordon/Stars and Stripes)

A Spanish soldier launches a drone at Grafenwoehr Training Area in Germany during the final event of the U.S. Army Europe and Africa Best Drone Warfighter Competition on Dec. 10, 2025. (Lydia Gordon/Stars and Stripes)

A soldier from 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment patrols through the woods of Grafenwoehr Training Area in Germany during the final event of the U.S. Army Europe and Africa Best Drone Warfighter Competition on Dec. 10, 2025. (Lydia Gordon/Stars and Stripes)

The service’s modernization initiative known as Transforming in Contact has been shaped by the innovative Russian and Ukrainian drone use throughout the nearly four-year-old conflict, which has put the new ways of warfare on display.

Besides Transforming in Contact, the Army has undertaken a series of counter-drone training exercises collectively dubbed Project Flytrap.

Sponsored by the 7th Army Training Command, the competition featured 10 teams from across the region, including rotational units from Poland and NATO allies Italy and Spain.

Soldiers taking part in U.S. Army Europe and Africa's inaugural Best Drone Warfighter Competition fly a drone before their final event on Dec. 10, 2025, at the Grafenwoehr Training Area in Germany. (Lydia Gordon/Stars and Stripes)

A 173rd Infantry Brigade soldier calibrates a headset for his drone on Dec. 10, 2025, the final day of U.S. Army Europe and Africa's Best Drone Warfighter Competition at Grafenwoehr Training Area in Germany. (Lydia Gordon/Stars and Stripes)

Their competition events included written exams, a drone obstacle course and real-world application. All the teams brought different drone platforms.

Navarro’s Vesper weighs just over a pound and can remain airborne for up to 50 minutes, according to the manufacturer’s website. The aircraft can reach speeds up to 45 mph and travel up to 28 miles.

Soldiers in the lethality test, one of two field events, were graded on basic soldier skills, individual camouflage, tactical movement through the woods, launch and reconnaissance to name a few, said planner Chief Warrant Officer 4 Charles Myers.

The other event tested aerial land navigation, accuracy and maneuverability.

After surveilling the town, the teams received points for reporting back to the ground force commander. They were then given a complex task of calling for additional strikes and killing the mannequin at the desk simultaneously.

A target that competitors must identify during one of the U.S. Army Europe and Africa Best Drone Warfighter Competition events sits behind a wall at Grafenwoehr Training Area in Germany on Dec. 10, 2025. (Lydia Gordon/Stars and Stripes)

Soldiers participating in U.S. Army Europe and Africa's first Best Drone Warfighter Competition fly their Skydio X10 drone in a scored event at Grafenwoehr Training Area in Germany on Dec. 10, 2025. (Lydia Gordon/Stars and Stripes)

A soldier picks up his drone after completing the final event of the Best Drone Warfighter Competition hosted by U.S. Army Europe and Africa in Grafenwoehr, Germany, on Dec. 10, 2025. (Lydia Gordon/Stars and Stripes)

The hardest part of the competition, Navarro said, was going in with little information and having to make split-second decisions, like where to launch.

Judges roaming the training area at the time shouted that his team’s performance was “remarkable” and the best they’d seen.

Some teams had not brought correct equipment or tested their drones before flight, leading to failure, Myers said.

Navarro and his team are members of the Readiness Center’s opposition force, so they have honed their skills tormenting rotational units training in its infamous “Box,” the name used to describe the operational area where war games take place.

They were honored alongside their Spanish counterparts at a ceremony at Balli Airfield after the competition’s conclusion. As the best American team, they will travel to Alabama in February for the Army’s top competition, Myers said.

Sgt. 1st Class Logan Parks, a drone program manager at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center, said the contest was essential to drone warfare’s tactical and doctrinal growth.

Spanish soldiers stand with Brig. Gen. Terry Tillis, right, and Command Sgt. Maj. Paul Fedorisin, left, senior leaders of 7th Army Training Command, on Dec. 10, 2025, in Grafenwoehr, Germany. The Spanish team won U.S. Army Europe and Africa's first-ever Best Drone Warfighter Competition, held at Grafenwoehr Training Area. (Lydia Gordon/Stars and Stripes)

Soldiers across U.S. Army Europe and Africa, along with military teams from Spain and Italy, competed in the first-ever Best Drone Warfighter Competition from Dec. 8-10, 2025. (Lydia Gordon/Stars and Stripes)

“It highlights where different teams are at in comparison to their partners or their peers, and it shows either shortcomings or strengths that they have to either remedy or emphasize,” he said. “It also gives them an example of what a tactical battle space could have in store for them so that they can prepare for it back at home station.”