The US Army is learning hard lessons from Ukraine and the Middle East on how to prepare and protect air defenders

Recent and ongoing conflicts have tested air defense systems and crews.

US Army photo by Sgt.

David Rincon The US Army is applying lessons from Ukraine and Iran to better prepare its air defenders.

Forward-deployed air defense units are bringing back lessons from combat.

Combat simulations are evolving to reflect new battlefield threats and tactics.

Intense missile and drone attacks in global conflicts are showing the US Army how it needs to train its air defenders, as well as how to protect them from threats, Army officials said.

Lessons on protecting MIM-104 Patriot surface-to-air missile systems and crews are coming in, and Army leaders say those observations are being quickly incorporated into training to help troops keep pace with evolving threats and tactics.

In their war against Ukraine, Russian forces have hunted Patriot batteries and other air-defense systems while also trying to overwhelm them with complex barrages of one-way attack drones alongside ballistic and cruise missiles, providing lessons in mobility, concealment, deception, and dispersal.

The war with Iran, meanwhile, has exposed American and allied air defenders to the challenge of defending against large-scale drone and missile bombardments while managing interceptor stocks.

The Army is learning those lessons, officials say.

Lt.

Gen.

John Rafferty, the head of Army Space and Missile Defense Command , told reporters at the Association of the United States Army conference last week that air defenders have been "probably the most aggressive community in the Army for learning lessons from Ukraine," with an emphasis on survivability and the protection of critical assets.

"How have we embraced those observations from Ukraine and then put them into action?" Rafferty said this was one of the first questions he asked when he took command earlier this year.