Photo By Staff Sgt. Tim Andrews | U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class John Jordan, assigned to Detachment 4, Headquarters and...... read more read more
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U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Jordan, assigned to Detachment 4, Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 1st Battalion, 134th Field Artillery Regiment, 218th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, was the only South Carolina Guardsman who participated in this event.
“I’m just really happy to have the opportunity to work out here with the Air Force and Shaw Air Force Base and a lot of the civilian contractors that we have out here supporting the warfighter,” said Jordan. “It is a privilege to be able to come out and do these things and be a part of this new frontier of our modern warfare and I’m glad to take part in it.”
Soldiers and Airmen participated in "Drone Smoke" demonstrating the capabilities of air-to-air interceptors and accomplishing objectives including air-to-air kills, high-speed intercepts, and rapid maintenance.
The event consisted of three phases including initial pilot training tailored to the particular drone systems, building and repairing the systems from scratch, and implementing using the systems to simulate taking out enemy unmanned aircraft systems assets using the systems the service members built.
Jordan, who has extensive experience as a Raven unmanned aircraft pilot is a master trainer for small Unmanned Aircraft Systems with various experiences on different platforms in the military and civilian sector with a Part 107 drone license remote pilot certificate. Jordan is also the South Carolina National Guard's first unmanned interceptor pilot with the Rapid Experimentation Drone for Defense and Intelligence.
“I think one of the biggest take aways is here is bringing capabilities more so than systems to the end user, with the concept of the ideas to be able to send the ability to make modify and repair drones as needed to the end user level instead having to rely solely on the military supply chain networks of bringing in a system and establishing it as a program of record and then fielding it and training it,” said Jordan.
| Date Taken: | 04.06.2026 |
| Date Posted: | 05.20.2026 15:10 |
| Story ID: | 565793 |
| Location: | SUMTER, SOUTH CAROLINA, US |
| Web Views: | 20 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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