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September 16, 2025: Ukraine’s success with First Person View (FPV) drones has impressed American special operations forces. Ukraine has used one-way attack drones to engage Russian tanks and mechanized infantry. One-way drones are sometimes called suicide drones.

During a recent visit by the Secretary of War to Fort Benning, GA, a U.S. Army Ranger team demonstrated how a light infantry unit with skilled FPV drone operators can engage, stop, and destroy heavy enemy armor. Rangers are special operations airborne light infantry, but theoretically, any light infantry unit with trained operators and a supply of one-way drones can use the drones as cheap, cost-effective “standoff weapons” to engage enemy vehicles (especially thin-skinned vehicles like trucks).

75th Ranger Regiment personnel began experimenting with FPV drones in spring 2024. The drones were commercial off-the-shelf models, relatively inexpensive and immediately available. A defense media source reported the Rangers selected drones that can fly over five kilometers and carry between five and ten pounds of high explosives. The report also stated that, as of early September 2025, the Rangers have not used a one-way drone to attack a tank.

High explosives (HE) can kill unprotected personnel. However, five pounds of HE won’t kill a modern main battle tank—unless it enters through an open hatch (very Hollywood). Destroying armored fighting vehicles in combat requires armor penetration. The Ranger experiments included outfitting several small FPV drones with EFPs (explosively formed penetrators). The drone operator spots the target, then fires the projectile carrying the EFP. The projectile’s warhead explodes and forms a metal penetrator that hopefully strikes the target.

But will it penetrate? Small EFPs are no threat to a main battle tank’s frontal armor. However, the top armor on the turret and the armor over the engine are thinner, which is why Russian and Ukrainian tanks have sported metal turtle shells and latticed wire cages. Still, a drone-fired EFP attacking a heavy armor target from above could achieve a mobility kill (halting the tank’s ability to move) or cause spalling inside the turret (which could wound or stun tank crewmen). At least that’s the concept.

Suicide drones are already used as artillery. There are several deep-insertion scenarios where lightly armed special operations forces, like the Rangers, could use one-way attack drones as artillery to suppress enemy air defenses, attack enemy artillery positions, or delay motorized enemy reinforcements. (AB)