Combat exposure in scenarios of UAS threat and operational mental health among National Army soldiers deployed in Cauca (2024)

Abstract

This study examines the impact of the recurrent use of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) by organized armed groups in Cauca on the operational mental health of Colombian National Army personnel, in a scenario that shifts the center of gravity of combat from physical destruction toward the degradation of the combatant's psychological integrity. A quantitative approach was adopted, with a non-experimental, cross-sectional design and a descriptive-correlational scope, applied to a non-probabilistic convenience sample of 130 service members deployed in the department of Cauca during 2024. The instruments administered were the Combat Exposure Scale, adapted to stressors specific to the aerial threat, along with three widely used screening instruments: the PCL-5, the GAD-7, and the PHQ-9. The results reveal positive, statistically significant associations between operational exposure and posttraumatic (ρ = 0.43), anxiety (ρ = 0.40), and depressive (ρ = 0.35) symptomatology, as well as high comorbidity among the three clinical conditions (ρ = 0.70 to 0.87). Although the sample means fall within subclinical ranges, 18.5% of participants exceeded the PCL-5 cutoff score and 13.3% exceeded that of the PHQ-9, revealing a heterogeneous distribution of impairment and a critical subgroup that measures of central tendency render invisible. The literature on drone warfare attributes this pattern to persistent aerial surveillance and to the acoustic stimulus of the engines as triggers of conditioned fear-a hypothesis that the present design does not allow to be tested directly. The study argues that the emotional attrition stemming from a persistent aerial threat should be elevated to the status of an early-warning indicator and integrated into the intelligence cycle, and it identifies a gap in psychometric instruments validated for the Colombian operational context.