Dragon Lift 2024 underway

This week is Dragon Lift 2024 being held. To maintain competency in combined patient movement operations, members of the Republic of Korea, Eighth Army, and U.S. Forces Korea execute this biennial medical exercise.

On June 25, 2024, deck qualifications were carried out by aircrew from the 2nd Combat Aviation Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, using two HH-60 Blackhawks, off the coast of a Republic of Korea Casualty Receiving and Treatment Ship.

Fort Drum, New York — On June 24-28, 2024, soldiers from the 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team of the innovative York National Guard visited Fort Drum, New York, to experience firsthand innovative technologies intended to reduce soldier risk in combat.

Recently, the lightweight laser designator rangefinder system and the Soldier-borne sensor unmanned aerial vehicle were deployed to different brigade units. The soldiers were trained on how to use these two new weapons in their arsenal in both classroom and hands-on scenarios.

The combat engineer of the 152nd Brigade Engineer Battalion and a native of Brooklyn, New York, Staff Sgt. Andy Huang stated that the Soldier-borne sensor, or SBS, “is portable and lightweight, increasing the effectiveness of our operations.” “It’s designed to do surveillance and reconnaissance and search for enemy fighting positions or friendly forces, instead of relying on us to do that.”

Huang stated, “You can’t really hear it because of how high it can go, and it’s small and lightweight.” “Therefore, even though the bad guys can’t see it, you can recon a lot of stuff.”

The lightweight laser designator rangefinder (LLDR), a crew-served, Soldier-portable, long-range target finding and laser designation system, was the second system fielded and trained on throughout the week. When using the laser designator to call for fire with precision, near-precision, and area munitions, the LLDR gives soldiers on the battlefield extremely accurate target position information.

“With the LLDR, you can essentially have someone else see what you’re doing or looking at without the soldier having to move,” stated Middletown, New York native Spc. Jeffrey Anicet, a joint fire support specialist with 1st Battalion, 258th Field Artillery Regiment. It makes it simpler for us observers to target shells, particularly when using mortars. Then, we can precisely drop along those coordinates to the tenth of a metre where we want them while working with aeroplanes on guided ordinance.