Learning from Ukraine, US Air Force medics are throwing up nets and pushing underground to survive drone attacks

Air Force medical troops simulate a patient evacuation during a training event in Michigan, Aug.

10, 2026.

1st Lt.

Elise Wahlstrom/US Air National Guard Air Force medics recently practiced evacuating a field hospital under drone attack.

Traditional medical training has not prepared US troops for persistent drone threats.

The exercise drew on Ukraine's use of netting, robots, and underground facilities.

US Air Force medics are learning how to treat and evacuate patients as drones threaten field care operations and hospitals, confronting an emerging threat for which their traditional medical training hasn't prepared them.

"Drones are a very real threat, and our medical Airmen are not prepared through their typical medical training to handle these UAVs," Maj.

Sarah Blackthorne, an Air Force medical planner involved in the training, said in a military news release.

"We developed a drone stress inoculation event testing how they might evacuate a field hospital." During the Northern Strike exercise in Michigan this month, active-duty Air Force and National Guard medics faced a simulated drone attack on a field hospital.

Troops strung up anti-drone netting , a common tool on Ukrainian battlefields, and used small-arms fire to counter uncrewed aircraft.

They used an uncrewed ground robot to inspect downed enemy drones and then moved patients to an underground medical facility, moving beneath anti-drone netting for protection along the way.

Near the front lines in Ukraine, anti-drone netting can often be seen covering supply routes, troops are pushing support infrastructure like field hospitals underground, and uncrewed ground vehicles are becoming increasingly common for dangerous medical and logistics operations.

Defeating drones remains a challenge.