APRIL 13, 2026 – The 1st Cavalry Division has completed the latest phase of its counter drone experimentation, a live-fire exercise from April 7-9 testing cUAS systems for its “Golden Shield” counter-drone concept for an Armored formation. This significant step in the division’s Pegasus Charge initiative incorporated autonomous cUAS battlefield effectors for the first time, advancing efforts to protect U.S. forces from the growing threat of small unmanned aerial systems.
Exercise Golden Shield integrated advanced sensors, kinetic and non-kinetic effectors and command-and-control systems to create an autonomous cohesive defense against small UAS. The effort, led by the 1st Cavalry Division in collaboration with Army DEVCOM and industry partners, aims to enhance the protection of armored vehicles and their crews while maneuvering. The system links sensors and weapons on tactical vehicles to automatically detect, track and engage threats, significantly shortening the sensor-to-shooter timeline and reducing cognitive load.
This marked the first live demonstration of an autonomous sensor on one platform detecting and classifying a hostile drone, then transmitting data and an engagement command to an autonomous weapon system on another platform to destroy the drone.
“The future is formation-based layered protection, and this is the start of that,” said Alfred Grein, Executive Director for Research and Technology Integration for the U.S. Army Capabilities Development Command Ground Vehicle Systems Center. “Some [of the systems] are more mature than others. But understand that’s part of why we do experiments to determine what we think is ready to hand-off to Soldiers in the field environment.”
The Golden Shield system is built on a scalable, open architecture, demonstrating a powerful fusion of capabilities by layering a next-generation command and control system with various sensors, effectors and the Vehicle Protection System Base Kit. This architecture allows the defensive network to grow or shrink based on mission needs and rapidly integrate new technologies. A key achievement of this integration is the acceleration of the kill chain; by automating the detect, track and cue process, the system enables faster, more effective engagements while significantly reducing the cognitive load on soldiers.
“The intent is to take these systems we tested this week and begin to integrate them within our armored formations’ training,” said Maj. Kevin Korrea, 1st Cavalry Division’s Air and Missile Defense Chief. “In that way, we are able to fully exercise not only the systems, but the tanker’s ability to manage these systems while conducting their normal operations.”
The insights and data gathered from Exercise Golden Shield will inform the Army’s decisions on how to implement this technology into its maneuver formations, supporting the Pegasus Charge and Transforming in Contact initiatives. This exercise represents a significant step forward in the Army’s modernization efforts to ensure soldiers are equipped with the most advanced technology to maintain overmatch and enhance their lethality and survivability on the battlefield.
About the 1st Cavalry Division
The 1st Cavalry Division, based at Fort Hood, Texas, is a combined arms division tasked with transforming how armored divisions fight and win on the battlefield. It is one of the most decorated combat divisions of the United States Army and serves as a vital component of the U.S. military’s ground forces.
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1st Cavalry Division