The US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that the Pentagon has sent its military to Ukraine to learn how to use drones in real combat conditions.
He said this during a hearing in the Senate committee.
At the hearing, Senator Mitch McConnell quoted US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, who called Ukraine the "Silicon Valley of War", and asked Hegseth whether he supported Pentagon officials traveling there to learn from experience.
Hegseth said the Pentagon has sent many officials to Ukraine and they have “learned a lot”. He emphasized that he personally approved the sending of additional troops to Ukraine.
“I personally approved sending additional personnel there to study this drone battlefield — both offensively and defensively — so that we can learn all the lessons we can from this conflict and apply them in real time to how we defend and operate offensively in an era where drone dominance is a necessity,” he said.
- The day before, on May 12, CBS News wrote that Ukraine and the United States were approaching a defense agreement that would allow Ukraine to export military technology to the United States and produce drones together with American companies.
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