Air Weapons: Rapidly Evolving Drone Developments
Ezoic
January 28, 2025: Ukraine has been fighting the Russian invaders for three years now. The expensive Russian failure to conquer Ukraine is largely due to Ukrainian ingenuity and innovations. Russia responds but rarely gets ahead. One area where Russia fell behind was drones. Ukraine revolutionized warfare with its many drone-based innovations. Russia tries to keep up but economic sanctions and continuous new drone developments from Ukraine get in the way.
By late 2024 Ukraine had come up with another gaggle of drone ideas. The most visually obvious one is the remotely controlled drone swarm. The usual Russian defense is jamming the control signals. The Ukrainian swarm has drones capable of operating independently when jammed and continuing the attack with less accuracy but, because it is a swarm with dozens of drones, some are still going to hit the target. The swarm concept has been tested successfully and the next step is using it against the Russians.
Ukrainians are able to modify their tactics and technology quickly, often in hours if all that is involved is a software modification. One new concept that has already been used is First Person View/FPV drones to plant magnetic mines on the edge of a road or trail Russian armored vehicles are headed for. When the armored vehicles show up, all that moving metal activates the magnetic mines, blowing the tracks or wheels off the armored vehicles. Thus immobilized the crews usually bail out and run before another FPV drone with more explosives arrives to finish off the motionless vehicles.
https://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htairw/articles/2025012803113.aspx#gsc.tab=0
