August 4, 2025: In an unexpected event, Ukrainian robotic vehicles induced several Russian soldiers to surrender without any Ukrainian troops present. Robots and drones have also cooperated to take Russian positions. The robots then escorted the dejected Russian soldiers away from the front line. Earlier this year there was another incident in which drones compelled several Russian marines to give up.

Meanwhile Ukraine is equipping their combat brigades with ground-based combat and transport robots in addition to drones. The ground robots come in different versions. Some are used for planting and removing landmines. Other drones advance along the ground while firing remotely controlled machine guns. These systems can fire accurately at moving targets during the day and at night. There are also drones for transporting supplies to the front lines and carrying casualties back to first aid stations and field hospitals. The growing number of Ukrainian drone systems were developed based on reports from the front line troops. Those ideas were quickly put to use because of wartime urgency.

Last year Ukraine created a new branch of their military, the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Force, or the Drone Force. This was in addition to the Ukrainian Air Force that consists of manned aircraft. This Drone Force does not control the drones Ukrainian forces use but contributes to developing new drone models and organizing mass production for those new models that proved successful. Such drones have been an unexpected development that had a huge impact on how battles in Ukraine's current war are fought. Drones were successful because they were cheap, easily modified, and expendable.

Both Russian and Ukrainian forces were soon using cheap quadcopter drones controlled by soldiers a kilometer or more away using First Person Viewing/ FPV goggles to see what the video camera on the drone see. Each of these drones carries half a kilogram of explosives, so it can instantly turn the drone into a flying bomb that can fly into a target and detonate. This awesome and debilitating weapon is used in large numbers throughout the battlefield. If a target is stationary and requires more explosive power than the drones can supply, one of the drone operators can call in artillery, rocket, airstrike or missile fire. Larger, fixed wing drones are used for long range, often over a thousand kilometers, operations against targets deep inside Russia.

Most of these drones complete their missions, whether it is a one-way attack or a reconnaissance and surveillance mission. The recon missions are usually survivable and enable the drone to be reused. All these drones are constantly performing surveillance, which means that both sides commit enough drones to maintain constant surveillance over a portion of the front line, to a depth, into enemy territory, of at least a few kilometers. Ukrainian drones have pretty much ended Russian motorized transport with 20-30 kilometers of the front lines. This forces the Russians to use pack animals, UAVs, motorcycles or the backs of soldiers to move material.

This massive use of FPV-armed drones revolutionized warfare in Ukraine and both sides are producing as many as they can. Ukrainian drone proliferation began when many individual Ukrainians or small teams designed and built drones. The drones served as potential candidates for widespread use and mass production. This proliferation of designers and manufacturers led to rapid evolution of drone capabilities and uses. Those who could not keep up were less successful in combat and suffered higher losses.

One countermeasure that can work for a while is electronic jamming of the drones control signal. Drone guidance systems are constantly modified or upgraded to cope with this, and many use multiple modes of communications. Most drones have flight control software that sends drones with jammed control signals back to where they took off from to land for later use. The jammers are on the ground and can be attacked by drones programmed to home in on the jamming signal. A recent development is the use of Fiber Optic Cables/FOG trailing behind a drone that is immune to jamming. Countermeasures can be overcome and the side that can do this more quickly and completely has an advantage. That advantage is usually temporary because both sides are putting a lot of effort into keeping their combat drones effective on the battlefield.

Western armed forces, after a century of trying, still cannot get their air force jets to come down and get a much needed reality check on what is happening down below where battles and wars are decided. Meanwhile the proliferation of surveillance and armed drones have in many cases replaced conventional air forces, at least for operations close to the ground and requiring more urgency to find and attack targets.