The U.S. Army has officially fielded a reconnaissance drone to troops that’s been around since before Grand Theft Auto V was released—yes, the same GTA V that came out in 2013 and is still waiting on a sequel that is expected to release in May of 2026.
Dubbed the Soldier Borne Sensor (SBS), this “new” drone system—more accurately, a slightly upgraded version of the Black Hornet Nano—was first selected for evaluation in 2014. Now, more than a decade later, it’s finally being issued to troops in a rollout the Army is framing as a “milestone” achievement.
Let that sink in: GTA V had just dropped, TikTok didn’t exist, “Let It Go” was climbing the charts, and today’s soldiers were probably still in middle school when this drone entered Army testing. Meanwhile, insurgents, narco-cartels, and YouTubers have been flying similarly capable commercial drones for years.
One Step Forward, a Decade Late
The drone is small, quiet, and simple to operate—features that have existed in off-the-shelf drones for years. At under 3 pounds and capable of thermal imaging, “fly-to-home” tracking, and autonomous navigation, the SBS is undoubtedly a useful tool. The problem? It’s 2025, and this technology is not new.
“It’s super easy to fly,” said Sgt. Quinton Layton, who recently trained on the newly fielded Soldier Borne Sensor while assigned to Joint Task Force – Southern Border at Fort Bliss, Texas. “I picked it up in about 15 to 20 minutes—it’s that intuitive.”
That might sound impressive if DJI hadn’t already sold millions of user-friendly drones to teenage influencers, wedding photographers, and search-and-rescue teams who’ve been flying them with similar ease for nearly a decade.
The $250 Million Question
According to Teledyne FLIR Defense, the Army is set to spend more than $250 million on Black Hornet drones by 2030, including the latest Black Hornet 4 model under the SBS Phase II contract. These drones are already in use by more than 40 other countries, many of which began deploying them years before the U.S. got around to it.
In fact, Norway was fielding the Black Hornet in 2012—a year before GTA V hit the shelves. By 2013, its PD-100 Black Hornet was already providing covert ISR to Norwegian forces in the field.
Now, in 2025, the U.S. Army is proudly parading this delayed tech demo as the dawn of modern drone warfare.
“This is probably going to be the greatest asset to both missions at home and abroad,” said Staff Sgt. Harris-Sims, another Soldier who took part in testing the drone during the initial fielding event at Fort Bliss.
Maybe so—but only if we’re pretending the last 10 years of global drone evolution never happened.
Drone Bureaucracy: The Real Threat
The Army’s celebratory press release, published August 20 on Army.mil, touts the SBS’s “user-friendly” nature and advanced camera options. Soldiers at Fort Bliss praised the features like “zipline mode,” thermal view, and the auto-follow “fly-to-home” function.
Yet none of these capabilities are groundbreaking in 2025.
“I liked the zipline feature,” said Sgt. Layton. “You just pick a point, and it flies there.”
Again—awesome feature… if you’re still living in 2015.
Back in Washington, even the Pentagon seems frustrated with the lag. In a recent internal shakeup, the White House replaced the DoD’s drone task force, hoping to speed up U.S. responses to rapidly evolving threats. The Salty Soldier covered that move here: Pentagon Replaces Drone Task Force in Hopes of Keeping Up With Drone Threats
It’s Not That the SBS Is Bad—It’s That It’s Late
Make no mistake: the SBS is a solid tool. A nano-drone that delivers near-real-time video and reduces Soldier exposure is a win. The issue isn’t the drone—it’s the snail-paced acquisition process that took over a decade to field something already in mass production.
Imagine the Army buying smartphones that launched in 2012 and throwing a parade when troops finally get to unbox them. That’s the vibe here.
Meanwhile, America’s adversaries—state and non-state—have been MacGyvering cheap drones into suicide bombers, recon tools, and jamming platforms with terrifying effectiveness since the early 2020s. Just look at any footage from Ukraine.
The Soldier Borne Sensor will help Soldiers. That’s undeniable. But framing its rollout as a “leap forward” in 2025 is like bragging about finally getting MySpace on your Blackberry.
The Army needs drones—fast, modern, and adaptable ones. But even more than drones, it needs acquisition reform that doesn’t leave troops flying 10-year-old tech into tomorrow’s fight.
Until then, we’ll keep handing Soldiers the right tools… about five wars too late.
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