Soldiers at the 25th Infantry Division’s “Lightning Lab” at Schofield Barracks have been developing, building, tinkering with and modifying drones as technology that was once seen as science fiction becomes increasingly a fact of life in the 21st century.

The Lightning Lab is the division’s “innovation and development” section, meant to look at how new technology can help support the division’s soldiers and leaders.

“There are only soldiers here, we don’t have any civilians that work with us, so no (Department of the Army) civilians, no contractors,” said Lt. Col. Nathan Whitney, the lab’s director. “There’s all soldier tech.”

The 25th Infantry Division, sometimes called “America’s Pacific Division,” is increasingly finding itself central to Army planning as it seeks to plan and reshape

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