We got an inside look at what it's like on the first day for new plebes at the US Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, New York.

287 plebe candidates arrived on campus for the beginning of "indoctrination," a 16-day period full of intense mental and physical tests.

During our visit, we saw plebe candidates getting their heads shaved, learning proper movements and responses, and enduring an event known as "the Grinder," where their instructional cadre commands and corrects them with loud intensity.

After an emotional farewell to their families, the plebe candidates take their first steps toward becoming licensed officers in the US Merchant Marine.

Most graduates go on to work as licensed officers aboard commercial and government ships, either navigating and managing the vessel or operating its engines and machinery. But during wartime, these civilian mariners can become a critical part of the military supply chain, operating ships that carry weapons, vehicles, fuel, ammunition, and other supplies to US forces overseas.

• NATO member Norway's prime minister said Zelenskyy's plane was "almost hit" by a drone in Moldova.
• Moldova, which is to Ukraine's southwest, said a Shahed had entered its airspace on that day.
• The drone later crashed in northwestern Moldova, and there are no details yet of how close it got.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's corporate jet was threatened by a drone as he prepared to fly from Moldova to Oslo, according to Norway's prime minister.

"His plane was almost hit by a drone as it took off in Moldova. That's his reality," Jonas Gahr Støre told local broadcaster NRK on Wednesday.

Støre did not provide further details on the incident. Nor did he mention the distance between the drone and Zelenskyy's plane.

The Ukrainian president flew from Moldova on Tuesday evening to attend King Harald of Norway's funeral, before flying to Ottawa to meet with Canadian leaders.

Moldovan authorities said that a drone had entered their country's airspace on Tuesday via the Ukrainian border, adding that preliminary data showed the uncrewed aerial vehicle was a Shahed — Russia's main attack drone. This Shahed entered Moldova twice in the late afternoon, said officials who temporarily closed the country's airspace.

The time of the Shahed's entry, at about 4.20 p.m., matches when Zelenskyy would have been preparing to fly to Oslo.

The Kremlin can launch hundreds of Shaheds and decoy drones at Ukraine in a single day, some of which have been documented wandering into nearby countries, such as Poland and Romania.

NATO has accused Russia of intentionally sending the drones to Eastern Europe to test its reaction to such potential threats. Moscow denies having any such plans.

Moldova's government told Reuters on Wednesday that Zelenskyy's plane was cleared for take-off after the drones exited its airspace.

The Ukrainian president's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours by Business Insider.

A separate public statement by officials said the Shahed drone had also initially flown into Romania before returning to Moldovan airspace. It eventually crashed in the northwestern district of Glodeni.

No casualties were reported, though the crash started a fire, officials said.

• The Air Force plans to integrate basic data and AI literacy into core training for airmen at every level.
• The service wants AI-assisted instruction to help reduce training timelines by 20%.
• Leaders have three months to develop implementation plans and must overcome cultural resistance.

The Air Force is embarking on an aggressive push to use artificial intelligence across its training pipelines to shorten technical training timelines, accelerate pilot training, and teach basic AI skills to airmen across the force.

These ambitions are outlined in a new guidance document released Wednesday by Air Education and Training Command, which oversees Air Force training, from recruit training and foundational military job training to advanced schools.

The coming changes could reshape not only how airmen are trained, but also how instructors teach and how the service manages its people.

The push follows Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's January directive to make the military an "AI-first" force and aggressively eliminate bureaucratic barriers to adopting the technology.

"Every leader from wing commanders to line instructors are expected to overcome cultural resistance, enforce enterprise consolidation, and drive this shift across their organizations," Air Force Lt. Gen. Clark Quinn, who oversees AETC, wrote in a foreword for the new strategic planning.

Subordinate commands have three months to figure out how they'll implement Quinn's directive.

The resistance mentioned in the new guidance document isn't unique to the military. Use of artificial intelligence, chatbots, and smart devices is skyrocketing, but many Americans remain concerned about the impact AI will have in the US.

According to a recent Pew Research Center survey, around 50% of American adults reported using AI chatbots, but many also feel the tech brings more negative impacts than positive.

Airmen at all ranks — from fresh arrivals at boot camp to senior officers pursuing professional military education — are set to see "basic data and AI literacy standards" integrated into the training curricula, according to an Air Force press release on the new guidance.

Data literacy and AI fluency should be considered "core competencies," akin to marksmanship. Whatever relevant AI training personnel receive will be tracked with new digital skills certifications, and airmen with advanced skills will be specially tracked for talent management, the service said.

The Air Force's AI push mirrors a broader shift in the civilian workforce, where employers are increasingly making AI proficiency an essential job skill, even factoring its use into certain career advancement considerations.

According to the guidance, the command hopes to reduce average training time for technical specialties by 20% by "using AI-augmented and adaptive instruction," though it does not identify which specific career fields could be affected or provide details on what those instructional changes might include.

Making the plan all work will require AETC to better organize the data that its AI tools depend on. Soon, "Data Stewards" will serve as a new type of data manager to make sure such "critical mission data is cataloged."

The command hopes to speed up how quickly new pilots can be trained by using AI to optimize flight schedules and resource allocation.

Other military schools are also seeking ways to implement AI into training. During a recent visit to the Army's Joint Special Operations Medical Training Center, medics and physicians told Business Insider the unit had begun using AI to track class data and better identify students who might be struggling, or assess how their tight schedule could be optimized.

• US Army officials said the drone experimentation role of one of its battalions was always meant to be temporary.
• The decision to phase out the drone focus confused experts and lawmakers alike.
• The Army's priority is to democratize drone warfare lessons and tactics across formations.

The US Army says that its special battalion focused on drone warfare and lessons from Ukraine was always meant to be a temporary experiment, not a lasting element of the force.

The Unmanned Assault Battalion was created last fall as an experimental unit in the 173rd Airborne Brigade specializing in drone tactics. The 3rd Battalion of the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment was tasked with testing uncrewed systems and developing battlefield lessons the Army could apply more broadly.

When news broke last month that the service intended to phase out the battalion's drone-focused mission and return it to airborne infantry, with a focus on traditional warfighting, the move prompted questions about why the Army was ending the experiment and concerns about its wider approach to drone warfare.

At an Army modernization media roundtable on Wednesday, Army officials said that the shift had been planned from the beginning and presented how they intend to spread lessons on uncrewed aerial systems across the service.

"They were never flagged to be a permanent centralized drone unit," Alex Miller, the Army's chief technology officer, told reporters.

"In fact, we pushed back on having something like a drone corps since its inception because our theory of the case is, if you centralize that in one place, what you lose is the ability to actually scale that learning and send that out to the rest of the Army," he added.

The plan, Miller said, was for the battalion to test uncrewed technologies and learn tactics in the six to seven months before they received their full infantry battalion equipment. Then, the Army would disseminate those takeaways across the service and the troops from the battalion would return to their role as airborne infantry.

When The Wall Street Journal first reported the change, an Army spokesperson said the service was committed to "drone dominance" but did not comment on future plans. The Journal reported that no end date was specified when the battalion's drone role was established.

At the time, an Army spokesperson told Business Insider the unit's findings would inform force design and future experimentation.

The reporting on the plans to phase out the battalion's drone mission raised concerns among defense analysts and lawmakers, who questioned what the decision signaled about the Army's commitment to drone warfare, the service's willingness to learn from Ukraine's warfighting experiences, and broader Pentagon priorities for uncrewed capabilities.

"We have deep concerns that eliminating this specialized drone unit will limit our ability to learn from allies, particularly the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and hinder our efforts to modernize drone warfare at the speed necessary to compete on the modern battlefield," US lawmakers wrote in a recent letter to Army leadership.

The letter added that "this specialized unit was a prudent response in a moment when the character of warfare is changing faster than a conventional formation's ability to adapt."

The Army didn't explain publicly that the drone mission was always intended as a short-term experiment when the planned change first drew criticism weeks ago, but officials said Wednesday they wanted to clarify.

"We're sort of combating this narrative that we set something new up, and then we killed that new thing, and we're going to sacrifice it at the altar of technology," Miller said. "That's just not true."

He argued that spreading lessons across the Army rather than concentrating drone expertise in a permanent unit better fits the goal of making uncrewed systems a routine part of how the larger force fights.

"When we engage with the Ukrainians and we engage with their leadership, it was less a drone corps and was more of one platoon per company, one company per battalion, which looked an awful lot like how we were actually setting up our tactical UAS platoons as a formation anyway," he said.

The Army rejected the idea that ending the battalion's drone-focused mission represents a step backward in its efforts to integrate uncrewed capabilities.

"We are not slowing down on drones or autonomous systems, and we are not walking away from them," Miller said.

Other officials, likewise, said that drone capabilities are continuing to spread across formations regardless.

"We are employing unmanned aircraft systems at all levels," said Brent Ingraham, the assistant secretary of the Army for acquisitions, logistics, and technology, adding that "while there was an experimental drone battalion, we are scaling that capability across the entire Army."

Moving forward, the Army says it has several methods for sharing drone lessons and tips, including a Combined Arms Services platform that acts as a central repository for lessons from different soldiers and units.

• Ukrainian soldiers are spending longer periods in combat areas.
• The heavy drone saturation has made it difficult to leave the front lines for medical care.
• One unit said that soldiers must have treatment options brought forward in response.

The threat of Russian drones is keeping Ukrainian troops stuck near the front for longer stretches and forcing the military to think more about how it delivers medical care to soldiers who can't easily leave.

For one Ukrainian military unit that specializes in front-line casualty evacuation, the lesson is that battlefield medicine now has to do more than stabilize the wounded and get them out.

Soldiers in combat areas for extended periods need access to outpatient care, diagnostics, specialist consultations, and treatment for both chronic and acute illnesses without being forced to leave the battlefield every time they need medical assistance, Ukraine's 1st Separate Medical Battalion told Business Insider.

A battalion spokesperson, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for security reasons, said in translated remarks that modern combat medicine is developing in two main directions: using machines to replace troops and evacuate casualties wherever possible and pushing high-quality medical care closer to troops at the front.

The front lines have evolved into what Ukrainian officials and soldiers describe as a "kill zone." Drones are constantly watching and able to target anything that moves, including soldiers and armored vehicles, with precision. The aerial threat has made it difficult and time-consuming to move even short distances.

The kill zone varies in size, extending for miles on both sides of the line of contact, and Ukrainian officials and soldiers say it is expanding as more drones flood the battlefield.

The battalion spokesperson said the growing number of drones is forcing the unit to change its approach to casualty evacuation, stabilization sites, and forward surgical teams.

The unit must become more mobile and less visible, moving between locations faster, the spokesperson said.

Ground robots, meanwhile, are increasingly being used for casualty evacuation, reflecting a growing trend across the Ukrainian military in which machines are replacing soldiers for dangerous missions such as logistics.

The battalion spokesperson said that access to sophisticated medical equipment is also critical, though the most advanced equipment is not always the most useful. Any system brought forward must be suitable for rugged, front-line conditions, meaning that it must be mobile, autonomous, easy to maintain, and have a sufficient support chain.

In some cases, a reliable, self-sufficient device may be more valuable to the unit than a more advanced system that isn't designed for the battlefield, the spokesperson said.

More generally, heavy drone saturation in Ukraine has upended long-standing assumptions about combat casualty care.

Delayed casualty evacuation, for instance, stands in stark contrast to the model US and allied forces relied on in the post-9/11 wars, when US and coalition forces could leverage their air superiority to helicopter wounded soldiers to large, fully equipped bases.

Western military leaders are increasingly warning that they might not have these same advantages in a future war against a near-peer adversary such as Russia.

In Ukraine, drones have made it difficult to deliver medical care to wounded soldiers within the "golden hour," the first 60 minutes after a severe injury, when rapid treatment can be critical to survival.

NATO is increasingly aware that it could face similar challenges and has looked to Western medical and defense industries for technology that could help save lives in a drone-infested environment.