September 5, 2026:
Britain is investing more than $5 billion to develop and produce drones. These include autonomous aircraft, one-way attack drones, ground combat and supply drones, surface and submarine naval drones, and sensors, AI, communications, propulsion, and interceptor drones. For the Navy, technology will enable surface and submarine drones to operate under the supervision of a manned warship. The Army and Royal Marines are being equipped with all types of drones being used in Ukraine and are training with this drone technology now.
Britain is one of many NATO countries cooperating on drone components development and production. Drone warfare includes a crucial electronic warfare component. The Ukrainians, Europeans and the United States are all in on achieving and maintaining world dominance in drone technology.
Other European nations are doing the same. Last year, Latvia, one of the three Baltic states, pledged to deliver 15,000 drones to Ukraine by mid-2025. The international drone coalition, led by Lithuania and Britain, was formed in early 2024 to organize drone shipments to Ukraine from countries willing and able to do so. Meanwhile, Ukraine is currently producing 400,000 drones a month and expects to deliver about four million drones in 2026. Latvia borders Lithuania, Belarus, Russia, and Estonia and sees itself on the list of future Russian conquests if Ukraine is defeated. Russia has already announced that it is prepared to take on NATO countries like Lithuania once Ukraine is defeated.
Ukraine considers drones a decisive weapon in its war with Russia. Ukraine basically invented modern drone technology and tactics. There have been problems. Chinese component producers are struggling to keep up. At least 90 percent of Ukrainian drones are built entirely in Ukraine, and the rest use imported parts or whole assemblies. Some Ukrainian firms have improvised by using plywood and similar materials for their drones. For FPV (first-Person View) drones, cheaper is better if the drone can hit its first and only target. Most Ukrainian drones are FPV models, which are considered a form of ammunition.
The soldier operating the FPV is a kilometer or more away and uses FPV goggles to see what the drone's day/night video camera sees. Adding night vision doubles the cost for each drone, so not all of them have that capability. Each of these drones carries half a kilogram of explosives, so it can instantly turn into a flying bomb that flies into a target and detonates. This is an awesome, debilitating weapon that has been used constantly over the last year. Some of the video is captured and posted on social media. These videos show Russian soldiers in large numbers being terrified of drone sounds over the combat zone.
Ukraine also developed an interceptor drone that can destroy other drones. It uses FPV drones to detect enemy drones and destroy them through collision. This is made possible by using drones controlled by FPV operators. While the first FPV drones were quadcopters, the interceptor drones are faster fixed-wing models that look like remotely controlled model aircraft.
Interceptor drones are used to take down Russian reconnaissance and surveillance drones that locate targets for Russian artillery, and for air strikes by manned aircraft or explosives-equipped FPV drones that can pursue a moving target. Unlike manned aircraft, drones are smaller and slower, with top speeds of 100 to 150 kilometers an hour and only operate at low altitudes under 1,600 meters. These drones still can't catch helicopters, which they could damage. Fixed-wing aircraft, like jet fighters, are another matter, as they rarely fly low enough for the drones to reach, much less hit, such a fast-moving aircraft. The Ukrainians have incorporated this new killer-drone capability into their air defense systems, meaning the air defense radars and fire control systems recognize drones large enough, or metallic enough, to show up on radar. Modern aircraft tracking radars are not designed to detect, let alone track, small, slow, low-flying drones.