The U.S. Army has conducted military exercises involving the excavation of mass battlefield graves, preparing for a potential future war in which casualties could become so overwhelming that bringing fallen soldiers home promptly would no longer be possible.
The Unit Ministry Team across XVIII Airborne Corps, collaborate and prepare a designated battlefield temporary interment site in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Oct. 20, 2026. Photo by Sgt. 1st Class Ange DesinorThe drills, dubbed Operation Dragon Covenant, were held in North Carolina earlier this month and brought together military engineers, chaplains, medical personnel, and fatality management specialists to practice burying large numbers of bodies in temporary battlefield trenches, Army Times reports.
Engineers reportedly used D6 bulldozers to excavate trenches capable of holding 20 bodies in roughly 75 minutes. Commanders calculated that a properly equipped engineering company could dig and cover trenches for 2,400 bodies in 24 hours of nonstop operations.
A U.S. Army D6 bulldozer, operated by horizontal construction engineers from the 20th Engineer Brigade, backf
