Fort Benning hosts inaugural Army JROTC National Drone Championship
This weekend, the Inaugural Army JROTC National Drone Championship is taking place on post at Fort Benning, which serves as an Army proponent for human-machine integration and robotics.
Although a military wide JROTC drone competition took place last year, this is the first Army JROTC-specific championship.
Roughly 145 students from 40 different schools nationwide—including as far away as American Samoa—were at Lawson Army Airfield Friday night for the event's opening ceremony.
The two-day competition tests students on their drone piloting capabilities, teamwork and more. Cadets will compete in multiple events before winners are named Saturday evening.
Senior leaders at the event said it is a great opportunity to show high schoolers what the Army is like and showcase their hard work using technology similar to what they might see if they choose military careers.
'It's just amazing to see the technical aspect and how proficient these young people have become flying these drones,' said Command Sgt. Maj. Roy Young, who is the head of U.S. Army Cadet Command, which includes 270 host programs at universities nationwide, as well as 1,800 JROTC programs.
U.S. Army partnership with local university could speed up tech development
Cadets were grateful to be at the competition, which was in part put on by the Robotics Education and Competition (REC) Foundation.
'It means a lot to us because, you know, not everybody gets the opportunity that we have to deal with this technology, come out to these competitions and do these things that we're doing,' said Braden John, from Timberland High School in St. Stephen, S.C.
Minutes before, his team had skillfully piloted their drone through a course during a practice run. They said they had only spent about the past five months working with the technology.
Another team was similarly grateful to be representing their school at the national level.
'It took a lot for us to get here. We had to—we had to put a lot of effort and work into it, so it means a lot to us,' said senior Evan Elekima from Mattie T. Blount High School in Prichard, Ala.
The JROTC National Drone Championship comes almost one year after Fort Benning, then Fort Moore, hosted the inaugural Army Drone competition in May 2024.
It also comes one month after the post hosted an open house for the Maneuver Innovation Lab, where local university students and soldiers will work together to improve Army technology, including drone capabilities and training.
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