Drones Everywhere: How the Technological Revolution on Ukraine Battlefields Is Reshaping Modern Warfare – WSJ

CHASIV YAR, Ukraine Wearing video goggles, a Ukrainian trooper crouched on the top floor of a gutted high-rise and piloted a small drone into the nearby Russian-occupied city of Bakhmut.

With a swoosh, the first-person-view drone which cost roughly $300 to assemble sped after a target of opportunity, blowing up a pickup truck full of Russian troops.

Before we started flying here, the Russians had so much movement that there were traffic jams in Bakhmut, said the pilot, a member of the Special Operations Center A of the Security Service of Ukraine. Now, all the roads in Bakhmut are empty.

With thousands of Ukrainian and Russian drones in the air along the front line at a given time, from cheap quadrocopters to long-range winged aircraft that can fly hundreds of miles and stay on target for hours, the very nature of war has transformed.

The drones are just one element of change. New integrated battle-management systems that provide imaging and locations in real time all the way down to the platoon and squad levels in Ukraine s case, via the Starlink satellite network have made targeting near instantaneous.

via www.wsj.com