How Militaries Train FPV Drone Pilots (and What Transfers)

The US Army says it now has enough small drones for every squad. What it still lacks is enough trained pilots. Public training material shows both services putting simulator time before live flight, and adding formal structure on top.

By the FPV Drone Essentials editors · Defense · Published October 2, 2026

The US Army's deadline was 30 September 2026. By that date it says it has enough small one-way attack drones to supply every squad, so hardware is no longer the main constraint. On 17 September, Col. Gregory Merkl, the Army's Drone Dominance director, told Breaking Defense that the unfinished work is training soldiers to the right standard. In particular, qualified pilots still have to reach squad level. Today they sit at platoon level.

That makes training the main story of this fiscal year. It also raises a question FPV hobbyists have been asking for a while: how close is the military pipeline to the way civilians learn, and which civilian habits actually carry over?

Where the Army stands

The deadline comes from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's July 2025 memo, Unleashing U.S. Military Drone Dominance, as reported by DefenseScoop. The memo set the end of fiscal 2026 as the date for small one-way attack drones in every Army squad. It also reclassified small drones as consumables. Treating an aircraft as something that gets used up changes the planning problem. The limit is no longer how many airframes a unit holds. It is how many people can fly them well.

Deliveries are still catching up. An Army spokesperson told Breaking Defense the systems are not yet in every squad's hands. Military Times reported that the Army had fielded 10,000 small drones and was fielding 30,000 more. It also reported that the Army was closing its experimental Unmanned Assault Battalion, about 600 soldiers, after Exercise Saber Junction. Some coverage adds these together as 40,000 drones deployed. That total is better read as a mix of delivered and incoming aircraft.

Simulators come first in every public account

Both services start new operators on simulators and then certify them against set standards. This is the clearest pattern in the publicly released material. Required simulator hours vary widely, and the figures should not be combined into one number because each describes a different course with a different goal.

For civilians, Fort Rucker is the most useful example. An Army spokesperson said the course design drew on research finding that 25 or more hours on consumer FPV simulators improves real-world flying. The simulators named were consumer titles: Liftoff, VelociDrone and the Drone Racing League.

Fort Benning's reason for going virtual was more practical. According to the Army, there are not enough drones for every infantry trainee to fly one live.

The Marine Corps model

The Marines have built a more formal structure. MARADMIN 624/25 set a standard FPV operator training framework, with Weapons Training Battalion at Quantico as the central hub. Seapower Magazine reports that it includes six pilot courses and eight certifications. Students need simulator time on approved systems before they begin.

Alongside that framework is the Marine Corps Attack Drone Team. It was set up at Quantico in January 2025 under Weapons Training Battalion. Military.com describes its role as building FPV training programmes and representing the Corps in competitions. The Corps also has a dedicated primary MOS, 7316 Small UAS Operator, which Marines enter by lateral move. The solicitation for applicants lists its duties as remotely piloting small UAVs and acting as the unit's subject-matter expert.

One caution about Marine footage. A DVIDS video from 15 September 2026 shows 1st Battalion, 2nd Marines at Camp Lejeune and has been shared as FPV training. The aircraft in it is the Skydio X2D, which offers both manual and autonomous flight. DroneDJ described the drills as flying a circle, tracking a tree line and orbiting a point, first at low speed and then at high speed. These are sensible basic exercises, but they show an assisted aircraft, not the full-manual control an FPV pipeline is built around.

How much does the Army rely on hobbyists?

Trade outlets including UASFeed and DroneXL have argued that the Army depends on hobby-trained pilots. The official record supports a narrower claim: many of the 28 students on the first Fort Rucker course were hobbyists. No public figure measures what share of military pilots come from the hobby.

If that civilian pool matters, the FAA's FY2026-2046 forecast shows it shrinking. New recreational drone-owner registrations averaged 4,782 a month in 2025. That is down from about 5,810 a month in 2024 and 6,053 in 2023. The FAA estimates the active recreational fleet fell 11.0 percent, from 1.79 million aircraft in 2024 to 1.59 million in 2025.

These numbers are a weak measure of FPV skill, for two reasons. First, the fleet numbers are modelled estimates, and the same document gives a different present-day figure of 1.55 million. Second, many FPV quads weigh under 250 grams or are flown at club sites, so recreational registrations track FPV skill only loosely. Our guide to Weight and Rules explains why the 250-gram line matters. The professional side, meanwhile, is growing. According to the FAA's UAS compendium, Part 107 remote pilot certifications reached 493,396 by the end of 2025, more than 70,000 above December 2024.

The civilian path

The civilian learning path has three familiar parts: simulator hours, buddy-box instruction and flying under line-of-sight rules. The services now use the first part too, with their own hour requirements and, at Fort Benning, their own software. The comparison is more useful for the other two.

Buddy-box instruction lets an instructor and a student share control of one aircraft. On 28 September 2026 Joshua Bardwell published a YouTube video on a wireless version, in which the two radios link through an SBUS trainer module instead of a cable. The public military material covered here does not say whether the services use shared-control instruction, so the comparison has to stop there.

Line of sight is a legal requirement for civilians. Under 14 CFR 107.31, the remote pilot or a visual observer must keep the drone in view with unaided eyes for the whole flight. A Part 107 pilot wearing goggles therefore needs an observer. Recreational flyers under 49 USC 44809 must keep the aircraft within visual line of sight of themselves, or of an observer who is standing with them and in direct contact.

What transfers

• Simulator stick time. This is the strongest overlap. The Army cited research on consumer simulators and required 20 to 25 hours of simulator flying at Fort Rucker. The Marines make approved-simulator experience a condition of entry. A hobbyist's simulator hours are the kind of practice the services now require.
• Building from basics. Military Times describes instructors starting with basic movement before moving to scenarios, and the X2D drills ran slow before fast. The Flight practice chapter of FPV Drone Essentials uses the same approach: master simple control first, then add speed and complexity.
• Crew coordination. Civilian line-of-sight rules make a goggled pilot work and talk with an observer. Public military courses stress flying beyond sight in a contested environment. What carries over is airmanship and communication within a crew, not a tactic.
• Working to a standard. Both services now certify operators against set standards; the Marine framework alone includes eight certifications. On the civilian side, Part 107 remote pilot certification is the nearest equivalent credential.

What does not

• The operating environment. Merkl said the Army's training push centres on flying in contested spectrum. The civilian rules above are built around keeping the aircraft in sight, a different setting from the one Merkl described.
• Line of sight as a limit. For civilians it is a safety requirement that shapes every flight. The public military courses train for the opposite condition, so the rule does not carry over. Only the crew habits it builds do.
• Assisted-flight experience. Time on an aircraft like the X2D, with autonomous modes, is not full-manual FPV flying. Footage of assisted drones is not evidence of FPV proficiency.
• Organisational roles. The 7316 MOS includes serving as the unit's subject-matter expert. The Army's goal is qualified pilots at squad level. These roles exist inside a formation, and a hobbyist flying alone or at a club has no reason to practise them.

For readers starting out, the parts that carry over are the ones any new pilot should build anyway: steady simulator practice, a patient progression and good communication with an observer. Our getting started page sets out that path. The Rules chapter of FPV Drone Essentials covers the line-of-sight requirements behind it.

Sources

• Breaking Defense (Carley Welch)
• Military Times (Eve Sampson)
• DefenseScoop
• Task & Purpose (Patty Nieberg)
• Military Times (Eve Sampson)
• U.S. Army (army.mil)
• Seapower Magazine (Navy League)
• Military.com
• U.S. Marine Corps MARADMIN (marines.mil)
• DVIDS
• DroneDJ (Seth Kurkowski)
• FAA Aerospace Forecast FY2026-2046
• Compendium to FAA Aerospace Forecast 2026-2046
• eCFR 14 CFR 107.31
• 49 U.S.C. 44809 (Cornell LII)
• Joshua Bardwell (YouTube)

Facts checked against the sources above as of September 30, 2026. Drone rules and firmware change; check the current version before you rely on a detail.