TRUPPENÜBUNGSPLATZ PUTLOS TRAINING GROUND, Germany— In a grassy field near the Baltic Sea, U.S. soldiers used net-shooting hunter drones, specially outfitted 557 rifles , and .50-caliber machine guns to drop dozens of drones, large and small, into the cold mud.

For the U.S. Army, the daylong event marked the beginning of the end of firing $4-million missiles at $20,000 drones; for its European counterparts, it showed off options to counter Russia’s accelerating threat.

The event was part of Project Flytrap, a U.S. Army effort to advance the state of counter-drone art. More than 200 vendors applied to participate in the November iteration; 20 were chosen by the Global Tactical Edge Acquisition Directorate , a new procurement office the service set up to get such gear to the field qui

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