BARSTOW, Texas — The atmosphere in the TOC—tactical operations center—is tense. Troops are in contact, pinned down by an enemy firing from cover. The radios are chaos as a platoon leader on the scene tries to provide a situation report without knowing how many enemy troops are attacking or from where. The TOC informs him a drone has been rerouted to the beleaguered friendlies and is coming online now. Everyone holds their breath as a large screen in the TOC switches over to the done feed. The platoon leader leans into his hand mic and hears over the sound of gunfire, “Whopper, whopper, whopper, whopper …”
Such is the scene that played out at the US Army’s National Training Center (NTC) last week as troops got their first introduction to unskippable 15 second ads now embedded in all US drone footage. While the scenario (and the bullets) may have been pretend, the ads are about to become a reality across the military.
The program is codenamed Operation Ad-Suck. When drone software is updated, all drone overwatch feeds will include one unskippable 15-second ad that will play automatically when the drone arrives on station and two, back to back 15 second ads any time troops are in contact.
“It feels like a big change now, but troops are resilient and they’ll adapt,” stated Neal Mohan the CEO of YouTube Ad Manager, which will be providing the ads. “We’re also considering a feature that allows skipping some ads by taking a survey in the case of a MEDEVAC.”
