Final time we checked in on terrifying drone developments within the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainians had been dropping molten thermite along Russian trench lines and attaching surface-to-air missiles to naval drones.

Possessing a much smaller inhabitants than Russia, Ukraine has pinned its hopes in important half on drone warfare, and a whole bunch of corporations and organizations throughout the nation are constructing every little thing from tiny aerial assault drones to large ground-crawling, machine gun-toting minelayers. (And that is to say nothing of all of the innovation taking place in Western protection corporations like AeroVironment.)

Listed below are just some of the drone warfare improvements which have appeared in public sources over the previous couple of months.

Motherships

Ukraine has, for a while, fielded massive “mothership” drones that may carry and ultimately deploy a set of smaller assault drones. This method can, for instance, get mild and quick FPV assault drones behind the entrance strains earlier than releasing them, thereby extending the assault drones’ restricted vary.

Nevertheless it was solely this week that I got here throughout footage of a mothership drone launching an attack drone to take down a a lot bigger Russian surveillance drone. Within the video, the mothership will get in place above and behind the Russian drone, then launches a small quadcopter drone that races towards the Russian drone and explodes. Fragments of each drones float down because the mothership movies the motion.

Drones launching drones to assault different drones—welcome to struggle in 2025.

Shotguns

Because the begin of the struggle, the Ukrainians have been strapping every little thing conceivable to their drones, from grenades to mines to RPGs to thermite. Given their recoil, weapons have been an even bigger problem, however this hasn’t stopped drone makers from attempting.