US soldiers learn to detect drones by sound, drawing lessons from Ukraine

The U.S. Army is drawing lessons from the battlefield in Ukraine as soldiers learn to identify drones by the distinct sounds they make during patrols and combat operations.

The training focus emerged during the recent Project FlyTrap 5.0 exercise in Lithuania, a U.S.-led drill held during the first two weeks of May that concentrated on detecting, tracking and defeating low-cost unmanned aerial systems, Caliber.Az reports, citing foreign media.

Soldiers participating in the exercise were taught to scan not only ground-level threats but also the skies above them, adapting to the growing role of drones in modern warfare.

“No longer am I just scanning to my 12:00 and around me at ground level — we’ve incorporated this warfare to where we have to scan up and out as well … you have to now learn the sounds of the drones. Does it sound like one of the one-way attack ones coming in our potential direction?” said Sgt. 1st Class Tyler Harrington, a platoon sergeant for Eagle Troop, 2nd Cavalry Regiment, who led counter-drone tactics during the exercise.

While the U.S. Army has not formally incorporated audio drone recognition into its training curriculum, Harrington said the field experience gained during Project FlyTrap serves as an introduction to distinguishing between various drone types by sound.

“Some one-way attack drones have a higher buzz sound; they sound faster and more rapidly versus your enemy reconnaissance assets — they’re flying at a higher level, they’re up in the sky, hovering more of a flatter platform that is more easily detected,” he said.

The approach reflects combat lessons emerging from Ukraine, where drones have become a defining feature of the war.

In May 2025, Ukrainian outlet New Voice of Ukraine reported that Ukrainian forces were able to distinguish Russian Shahed drones and decoys by sound, citing comments from Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yurii Ihnat during a national telethon broadcast.

A separate investigation published by the Ukraine-based think tank CBA Initiatives Center found that Ukrainian troops trained across Europe between 2022 and 2025 were increasingly required to develop reflexes linked to drone threats because of the saturation of surveillance and combat drones on the battlefield.

“Ukrainian recruits need to build muscle memory for the sound of approaching drones, and if someone shouts ‘air!’ everyone has to immediately fall on the ground, point their rifles in the sky and aim at a drone,” the report said.

Ukraine has also expanded the use of passive acoustic sensor networks to improve drone detection and early warning capabilities.

According to a paper published on April 30 by the U.S. Centre for Army Lessons Learned, Ukrainian detection systems commonly rely on low-cost directional microphones, local computers for drone classification and synchronised timestamps to alert nearby shooters and air defence teams to incoming threats.

The paper recommended that U.S. military leadership adopt and further develop similar systems, particularly along NATO’s eastern flank, as drone warfare continues to reshape modern combat operations.

By Aghakazim Guliyev