2026年8月20日 / 美国东部时间下午1:56 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
一名美国陆军官员周四向哥伦比亚广播公司新闻证实，美国陆军正计划逐步撤销一个无人机营。该营去年才成立，专门用于研究并吸纳无人机作战的经验教训，其中包括来自持续进行的乌克兰战争的经验。
多名现任和前任美国官员向哥伦比亚广播公司新闻透露，撤销该单位的决定背后，是支持设立该营的高级军官与陆军代理参谋长克里斯托弗·拉内夫将军之间的紧张关系。
该营是由前陆军参谋长兰迪·乔治将军以及美国陆军欧洲和非洲司令部前司令克里斯托弗·多纳休推动设立的。两人均被解职或被迫提前退休，为拉内夫升任陆军代理参谋长铺平了道路。
该单位名为“无人突击营”，专门接受无人机作战训练，旨在作为一支特殊部队，可在任何需要无人机的部署地点执行任务。
多年来，乌克兰战争凸显了无人机在战争中的关键作用。在美国和以色列联合发动的针对伊朗的行动初期，伊朗向中东地区的美国军事设施发射了单向攻击无人机，这进一步强化了这一认知。
无人突击营正在参与一场将持续到9月的演习，期间该营将分享过去一年学到的经验，为陆军未来的作战提供参考。
一名陆军官员向哥伦比亚广播公司新闻表示，演习结束后，该单位将“重新专注于作为空降步兵营的核心作战任务”，这意味着士兵们将接受跳伞和从飞机上空降的训练。该营隶属于第173空降旅。
2026年4月30日，一名美国陆军士兵在德国霍恩费尔斯的一次演习中操控无人机。亚历克斯·克劳斯 / 彭博社通过盖蒂图片社拍摄
《华尔街日报》率先报道了该无人机单位将被逐步撤销的消息。
去年，前陆军参谋长乔治和陆军部长丹·德里斯科尔推出了他们所谓的“陆军转型倡议”，强调无人系统的重要性。
“我想我还没碰到过任何一个人说我们不应该借鉴乌克兰正在发生的战事，”德里斯科尔去年在接受玛格丽特·布伦南采访时，于《面向全国》节目中说道。
陆军部长的一名发言人表示，德里斯科尔不会就该无人机单位置评。
基于个人分歧的战略调整？
多名现任和前任官员向哥伦比亚广播公司新闻透露，拉内夫与推动设立该营的前高级军官之间的紧张关系由来已久。
官员们表示，拉内夫担任陆军第82空降师指挥官的任期早于常规标准，此前两人就已存在矛盾。官员们称，拉内夫被“非正式解职”后，很快就被要求搬出北卡罗来纳州布拉格堡的官邸，以便新任指挥官入住。这一事件加剧了拉内夫与多纳休之间的不和。
拉内夫的发言人将问题转交陆军回应，陆军除了确认将关闭该无人机单位的声明外，未置可否。
拉内夫本周在一份题为《陆军方位》的文件中公布了他对陆军的愿景。文件称，士兵们将专注于作战基础技能，同时整合新的作战能力，包括防御无人系统或无人机。
“每名士兵都有权知晓这支陆军的前进方向以及对他们的期望。这就是方位的意义——明确的方向。我的目标简单且从未改变：这支陆军必须能够在当下作战并取得胜利，”拉内夫在一份声明中说道。
“我们需要更多无人机”
退役陆军将军、前中央情报局局长戴维·彼得雷乌斯今年4月向哥伦比亚广播公司新闻表示，美国必须立即行动起来，将无人机纳入未来作战体系。
“如今一些西方国家认为，创新就是给装甲营配备50架无人机，”彼得雷乌斯说道。“错了。我们应该做的是撤销装甲营，用无人机营取而代之。”
美国陆军上尉罗南·塞夫顿2022年俄罗斯发动入侵后不久，就随陆军第2骑兵团首次部署到德国。今年3月，他在接受哥伦比亚广播公司《60分钟》节目采访时表示，美军一直在学习乌军的战场经验。
“对我们来说，第一个真正深刻的教训是，我们需要更多无人机，”塞夫顿在采访中告诉记者霍利·威廉姆斯。“所有训练都应该融入无人机，以提升训练的真实感。”
塞夫顿称，他曾向所能找到的每一位美军高级指挥官强调，“这一点至关重要，它正在改变战争形态，以下是我们现在就能实际落地的方法。”
随后他加入了陆军乌克兰经验教训特别工作组，这是另一个独立单位，与即将被撤销的单位不同，但同样负责将乌克兰武装部队的作战经验转化为美军的作战参考。塞夫顿表示，新技术不会让美军传统火力变得过时，但美军必须紧急调整，以应对美国对手研发的无人机。
U.S. Army moves to end drone battalion set up to absorb lessons from Ukraine war
August 20, 2026 / 1:56 PM EDT / CBS News
The U.S. Army is planning to phase out a drone battalion tasked just last year with studying and taking on board lessons on drone warfare, including from the ongoing Ukraine war, an Army official confirmed to CBS News on Thursday.
Multiple current and former U.S. officials told CBS News the decision to nix the unit came amid tension between the senior officers who championed the battalion and Gen. Christopher LaNeve, the acting chief of staff of the Army.
The unit was pushed by former Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George and the former commander of U.S. Army Europe and Africa, Gen. Christopher Donahue. Both were fired or forced to retire early, paving the way for LaNeve’s rise to acting Army chief of staff.
The unit, known as the Unmanned Assault Battalion, was schooled in drone warfare and set to be used as a special group that could deploy anywhere drones were required.
The war in Ukraine has highlighted the key role drones now play in warfare for several years. Early in the war launched jointly by the U.S. and Israel against Iran, that message was driven home further as Iran launched one-way attack drones at U.S. military installations across the Middle East.
The Unmanned Assault Battalion is participating in an exercise set to run through September, where it will deliver what its members have learned over the past year to inform the Army’s future warfare.
An Army official told CBS News that, after the exercise, the unit will “refocus on its core warfighting tasks as an airborne infantry battalion,” which means the soldiers are trained to parachute and drop out of aircraft. The battalion is part of the 173rd Airborne Brigade.
A soldier from the U.S. Army pilots a drone in an exercise in Hohenfels, Germany, on Thursday, April 30, 2026. Alex Kraus / Bloomberg via Getty Images
The Wall Street Journal first reported that the drone unit would be phased out.
Last year, George, the former Army chief of staff, and Army Secretary Dan Driscoll rolled out what they called the Army Transformation Initiative, which emphasized unmanned systems.
“I don’t think I’ve talked to a single person who has said we shouldn’t be learning from what’s occurring in Ukraine,” Driscoll told Margaret Brennan on “Face the Nation” last year.
A spokesperson for the Army secretary said Driscoll did not have a comment on the drone unit.
Strategic moves based on personal disagreements?
Multiple current and former officials told CBS News there has been long-simmering tension between LaNeve and the former senior officers who pushed for the unit to be established.
The officials said there was prior tension between LaNeve and Donahue after LaNeve’s tenure as the commander of the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division ended earlier than what is typical for that position. After he was “soft relieved,” the officials said, LaNeve was quickly pushed out of his house at Fort Bragg in North Carolina so the new commander could move in. Officials said that episode contributed to ill will between LaNeve and Donahue.
A spokesperson for LaNeve referred questions to the Army, which declined to comment beyond the statement confirming plans to shut down the drone unit.
LaNeve published his vision for the Army this week in a document titled “The Army Azimuth.” The document said soldiers will focus on the fundamentals of soldiering while incorporating new capabilities, including defending against unmanned systems or drones.
“Every Soldier deserves to know where this Army is headed and what’s expected of them. That’s what an azimuth is — clear direction. My focus is simple and it hasn’t changed: this Army must fight and win today,” LaNeve said in a statement.
“There needs to be more drones”
David Petraeus, a retired Army general and former director of the CIA, told CBS News in April that the U.S. needs to act now to incorporate drones for future warfare.
“In some Western countries right now, they think that innovativeness is giving 50 drones to an armored battalion,” Petraeus said. “No. What we should do is scrap the armored battalions and replace them with a drone battalion.”
U.S. Army Capt. Ronan Sefton was first deployed to Germany with the Army’s 2nd Cavalry Regiment not long after Russia launched its invasion in 2022. In March, he told CBS’ “60 Minutes” that Americans had been learning from the Ukrainians’ battlefield experience.
“The first really poignant lesson for us was, there needs to be more drones,” Sefton told correspondent Holly Williams. “They need to be everywhere involved in the training to add to the realism.”
Sefton said he told every senior U.S. commander he could find that “this is important, it’s changing warfare and here’s how we can actually implement it now.”
He went on to join the Army’s Ukraine Lessons Learned Task Force, a separate unit from the one which is being phased out, but which was also given the job of translating experience from Ukraine’s fighting force to America’s military. New technology will not make the U.S. military’s traditional firepower obsolete, Sefton said, but it will need to adapt, urgently, to counter the drones developed by America’s adversaries.