As both sides of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war attempt to claim technological supremacy, drone versus drone combat has become routine – and thanks to the ubiquity of cameras, this new kind of warfare is being documented in real time across air, land and sea.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has already been dubbed the “first drone war”, with some sources . Now, the war has evolved, with machines fighting machines on a daily basis in a way that we have never seen before.
“Drone on drone is a new development,” says , an analyst for the CNA think tank in Virginia, who likens it to the rise of aircraft combat during the first world war.
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Initially, drone combat was restricted to random encounters between unarmed reconnaissance quadcopters, with operators developing improvised tactics to bring down an opposing drone, such as using the body of a quadcopter to disrupt the rotors of an enemy craft. The first known improvised “” took place in October 2022, but deliberate interceptions started some months later, with small Russian first-person-view (FPV) attack drones targeting Ukrainian multicopter heavy bombers in kamikaze attacks.
The drone war stepped up a gear this August as Ukraine fielded new software to integrate its drone operations with air defence radar, allowing it to intercept Russian long-range reconnaissance drones. “We see them on radar systems, and we also see our own drones,” says a spokesperson for , a Ukrainian drone-maker. “This can only be done with a team working together.”
Wild Hornets recently released a  in what seems to be the past few months. This roughly matches the number of Russian drones brought down by all Ukraine forces in the entire previous year.
“It’s a vital mission – absolutely critical,” says the spokesperson. “Downing these drones has a massive impact. We are poking out the eyes of the enemy. They can’t see where to fire.” For example, the ability to temporarily blind Russian surveillance appears to have been a key factor in the success of Ukraine’s Kursk offensive in August, which saw Ukrainian troops occupying Russian territory.
Ukrainian drones are also providing defensive capabilities. Russia uses its Lancet, a 12-kilogram craft with a 2-metre wingspan, to hunt down and attack from over 40 kilometres away, and until recently it was unstoppable. But last month, a Ukrainian video showed a FPV drone for the first time.
A similar approach might counter the waves of long-range Shahed drones that attack Ukraine nightly. These are currently tackled by a mix of Western-supplied missiles and anti-aircraft guns, but some get through – the $30,000 Russian drones are a cost-effective assault on $480,000 Stinger missile defences. Wild Hornet says its $700 interceptor drones can tip the balance back in Ukraine’s favour.
“We have already developed such drones, and they are now being tested in combat,” says the Wild Hornets spokesperson. “We plan to make many of these drones.”
Drone versus drone combat has also played a crucial role in Ukraine regaining control of a section of the Black Sea in May, with with a combination of land-based anti-ship missiles and kamikaze boats known as uncrewed surface vessels, or USVs. Russia has retaliated with its own USVs and is fielding small drones to take down Ukraine’s robot boats. A shows Russia making the first ever recorded strike on a USV by a drone.
“[Small drones] can cover a lot of maritime area while in flight, and crews can be trained to look for specific anomalies on the water to identify and track incoming USVs,” says Bendett.
The land-going equivalents are tracked or wheeled uncrewed ground vehicles (UGVs). These typically transport food, water and ammunition in the last few dangerous kilometres to the front line. The remote-controlled robots are also used for laying mines and some are equipped with weapons. Unsurprisingly, there are already videos showing drone strikes on all of these types of UGV.
In the early days of drone combat, radio and GPS jamming were seen as viable defences against the machines, severing their connection to operators, but increasingly these are falling out of favour. Drone manufacturers are adding capabilities to get around jamming, such as AI-enabled controls.
While other counters may yet emerge, drones may be the best way to fight other drones. As , a recent event for Russian drone developers, put it, “only another swarm can effectively fight a swarm.”
“It’s possible we will have squadrons of drones fighting for air supremacy, but this will take time,” says the Wild Hornets spokesperson. “This is being developed. A lot will have to be worked out – for example, avoiding friendly fire.”
The rapid rise of drone versus drone combat leaves much uncertainty for the future of warfare, but the lower costs and reduced risk to life may one day see machines dominate, leaving humans as spectators in their own wars. One , speaking on television in 2017, predicted that in future wars “when one party’s drones are destroyed by drones of another, it will have no other choice but to surrender”. That commentator was president Vladimir Putin.
