{"id":64614,"date":"2026-04-21T22:40:30","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T20:40:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=64614"},"modified":"2026-04-28T23:54:45","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T21:54:45","slug":"the-latvian-army-learns-to-use-drones-from-top-experts-ukrainian-soldiers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2026\/04\/21\/the-latvian-army-learns-to-use-drones-from-top-experts-ukrainian-soldiers\/","title":{"rendered":"The Latvian Army learns to use drones from top experts: Ukrainian soldiers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Drones have become an indispensable tool in modern military operations, and also a huge challenge.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2026\/04\/07\/a-nightmare-for-the-kremlin-ukraine-is-already-launching-more-long-range-drones-than-russia\/\">A nightmare for the Kremlin: Ukraine is already launching more long-range drones than Russia<\/a><\/rel><br \/>\n<rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/03\/30\/the-fire-and-steel-reception-prepared-by-the-latvian-army-for-a-russian-invasion\/\">The fire and steel reception prepared by the Latvian Army for a Russian invasion<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n<p>Knowing how to use them and how to defend against them are two of the most important tasks that many armed forces face. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2026\/04\/07\/a-nightmare-for-the-kremlin-ukraine-is-already-launching-more-long-range-drones-than-russia\/\">As I mentioned here a few weeks ago<\/a>, <strong>the Ukrainian Armed Forces are demonstrating increasing capability and skill in operating unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).<\/strong> Allied countries are showing growing interest in learning from the experience gained by the Ukrainian Army. <strong>Today, the Latvian Army released this video of an exercise with Ukrainian soldiers to gain experience in drone operation:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Zemessardzes vingrin\u0101jums \u201cArona 2026\u201d\" width=\"665\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lLig01qoZhk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>The video shows Exercise Arona 2026, conducted by the Latvian National Guard<\/strong> from April 17 to 19 in the municipalities of Gulbene and Smiltene, with the participation of <strong>more than 20 teams from the four brigades of the National Guard<\/strong>. The maroon shield with a diagonal white stripe, shown below, identifies the soldiers of this branch of the Latvian Armed Forces, made up of volunteers who perform auxiliary functions for the Latvian Army Ground Forces. <strong>The Latvian National Guard consists of four brigades<\/strong> (1st Riga, 2nd Valmiera, 3rd R\u0113zekne, and 4th Kuld\u012bga), <strong>with a total of 18 battalions.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55222347888_a2eea075a4_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55222347888_04f390d27f_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>This year's exercise has focused particularly on the use of unmanned aerial vehicles<\/strong>, in order to <em>\"improve the National Guard's skills in an environment where technology and the flow of operational information are increasingly important\"<\/em>, as <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Latvijas_armija\/status\/2046260086889222401\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">reported<\/a> by the Latvian Army. <strong>In the video, we see various drone-related tasks, both reconnaissance and attack<\/strong>, including their operation and the acquisition of defensive tactics against them.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55222435214_b85f7c7b96_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55222435214_34ee0d7d4b_z.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>In the video, we also see a member of the 12th Special Operations Brigade \"Azov\" of the National Guard of Ukraine<\/strong>, who traveled to Latvia to provide training related to drones. <a href=\"https:\/\/militarnyi.com\/uk\/news\/azov-sformuvav-bataljon-udarnyh-bezpilotnyh-system\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">This Ukrainian brigade has an entire battalion dedicated to drones<\/a>, <strong>following a recruitment process initiated in 2024 to acquire professionals useful for this work:<\/strong> programmers, electricians, electronic engineers, automotive mechanics, drone pilots, and engineers of various specialties.<\/strong> <strong>The brigade has four companies:<\/strong> one for FPV attack drones, one for reconnaissance drones, one for electronic warfare and counter-drone operations, and one for technical and maintenance operations.<\/strong> <strong>How many allied armies currently have specialized units like this?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55222347883_06c9e1e69d_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55222347883_bd8b1d69ca_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>In this image we can see one of the unmanned aerial systems used in this exercise.<\/strong> It is an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.threod.com\/eos-c-vtol\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">EOS C VTOL drone<\/a>, manufactured in Estonia by the company Threod Systems O\u00dc. It is a long-range (50 km) drone for surveillance and target acquisition, designed to offer low detectability and operate in adverse conditions. This model is operated by Ukraine, Latvia, and six other NATO countries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Drones have become an indispensable tool in modern military operations, and also a huge challenge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19534,11544],"tags":[26824,7519,10707,17903,20684,26825,26292,15307],"class_list":["post-64614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-defense-portada-eng","category-army","tag-12th-special-operations-brigade-azov","tag-drones","tag-latvia","tag-latvian-army","tag-latvian-national-guard","tag-national-guard-of-ukraine","tag-threod-systems-eos-c-vtol","tag-ukraine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64614\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}