US Army Revives Bayonet Combat Training as Military Prepares for High-Tech Warfare Failures

At United States Army Ranger School in Fort Benning, military leaders have introduced a new bayonet assault course as part of a broader effort to train troops for a future battlefield where drones fail, communications collapse, and advanced technology suddenly goes dark.

The revamped training, unveiled this month, forces Ranger candidates through trenches, tunnels, walls, and smoke-filled obstacles before they stab silicone human-like targets with bayonets attached to their rifles. The quarter-mile course debuted during this year's Best Ranger Competition and has now been folded into the notoriously punishing Ranger Assessment Phase.

For a military increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence, satellite systems and autonomous drones, the decision to revive one of warfare's oldest weapons may appear contradictory. Army officials argue the opposite.

The concern inside military circles is that future conflicts may become so technologically contested that soldiers could suddenly lose access to GPS, battlefield networks, communications systems, and even drone support because of cyberattacks or electronic warfare. In those moments, commanders say, troops would need to rely on raw survival instincts and close-quarters combat skills.

"If all technology fails, Ranger students will have the fundamentals," Command Sgt. Maj. Patrick Hartung of the Airborne and Ranger Training Brigade said in an Army release.

Hartung added that the drills are designed to teach soldiers how to "close with and destroy the enemy" even under extreme battlefield conditions.

According to military analysts, the army's reasoning reflects a growing anxiety spreading through Western militaries after watching the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, where drones, electronic jamming, and attacks on communications infrastructure have transformed combat into something simultaneously futuristic and primitive. Precision weapons dominate headlines, yet many battles still devolve into brutal trench warfare, exhaustion and close-range fighting.

Military planners increasingly believe future wars may not resemble the clean, hyper-technological conflicts imagined a decade ago. Instead, they fear chaotic battlefields where digital systems fail faster than armies can replace them.

That fear appears to be reshaping how elite American soldiers are trained.

Ranger School, already considered one of the toughest military programs in the world, is designed to push troops through sleep deprivation, starvation-level fatigue and relentless physical stress. The bayonet course adds another psychological layer: forcing soldiers into simulated hand-to-hand violence while exhausted and disoriented.

Military historians say the value of bayonet training has never been purely tactical.

Historian John Stone argued in a widely cited 2012 paper that bayonet drills help develop what he described as the "moral fortitude" needed to continue fighting during moments of panic and battlefield collapse. The goal, he wrote, is to condition soldiers to function when fear, confusion and isolation overwhelm instinct.

The bayonet itself is rarely used in modern American combat operations. Still, it has never completely disappeared.

U.S. Marines reportedly fixed bayonets during the Second Battle of Fallujah in Iraq in 2004, while British troops carried out a bayonet assault the same year in Al Amarah. Marines and Army recruits continue practicing bayonet-style fighting using pugil sticks during close-combat instruction.