Data Needed to Fuel the Next Advances in Drone Technology

Drone advances have transformed battlefields in Ukraine and elsewhere. America and partner countries should harness this information by building datasets from these real-world examples.

A Ukrainian drone operator. Image source

Across the media landscape, we see articles outlining how the United States lags behind much of the world in drone technology. For example, multiple sources in the US Navy, Department of Defense, and private drone companies recently told Reuters that the US military is falling behind on sea drone development. In another, War On the Rocks ran a piece earlier this year likening America’s failure to quickly adapt to innovations in drone warfare to a failure to adopt the machine gun in the early 20th century. On October 12, news broke that mystery drones – one at least 20 feet long and flying over 100 miles an hour – have been flying over Langley Air Force Base and Naval Station Norfolk on the Virginia coast, highly restricted airspaces with bases housing some of America’s most advanced military technologies.

Although the narrative is often grim, the empirical evidence drawn from other countries’ experiences in drone warfare offers much for American researchers to work with. For this reason, collecting data from these real-world examples is imperative moving forward.

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal discusses the impact of drone innovators in Ukraine are changing the battlefield there. Specifically, the author points to four key ways:

1.  Drone on Drone: Ukrainian advances in using aerial drones to take out Russian reconnaissance drones.

2. ‘Dragon’s Breath’: Aerial drones used by Ukraine to spray a mixture of powdered aluminum and iron oxide that combusts at a high temperature, eliminating tree cover and more to expose Russian troops on the front lines. Russian troops now also use the technology, demonstrating its efficacy. 

3. ‘Queen of Hornets’: An aerial drone with an attached grenade launcher less prone to jamming than other devices, which rely on destruction on impact or careful maneuvering to drop a grenade from above. The drone can also carry up to 9.5 kilograms, giving it logistical applications as well.

4.  Mother ship drones: The limited battery life of smaller drones has led to advances in larger-scale models that can carry much larger batteries. For this reason, Ukrainian forces now use larger drones, such as the vampire, to carry smaller devices to locations deeper inside enemy territory.

I would also add the importance that sea drones play on in Ukraine’s intensifying conflict on the Black Sea to this list. We ran a piece on sea drones back in April that opened with the example of how a $250,000 Ukrainian sea drone sunk a $65 million Russian patrol vessel. Another is intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance ISR drones – drones used primarily for intel gathering rather than for their offensive capabilities. Recent technological advances have proven essential in a war defined by relatively firm lines of control across a vast open plane, where intelligence is essential in defending territory and making territorial gains.

Ukrainian-made Vampire drones have the power to carry smaller devices much further into enemy territory. Image source

Ukrainian sea drones are decimating Russia’s Black Sea naval capabilities. Image source

Civilian advances

Military advances in drone technology have had and will likely continue to have a profound impact on civilian drone technology. Advances such as Starlink, which continues to grow at an incredible pace, allow for greater connectivity not only in battlefields such as Ukraine but also for civilian applications around the globe. In this way, military advances in using drones to address logistical challenges could transform supply chains worldwide. Moreover, this enhanced connectivity is already transforming key sectors such as agricultural production, driverless vehicles, and more. For these reasons, a better understanding of the use of drones on today’s battlefield could have profound technological implications.

Drones are increasingly used in agriculture for purposes such as precision seeding and spraying. Image source

More information needed

Battlefield accounts and design images are useful for determining advances in drone technology, but they are far from the whole story. Each day, military and civilian operators are testing these technologies worldwide and optimizing them for battlefield use, resulting in invaluable lessons from real-world experience. If America is serious about catching up with recent advances and becoming a leader in drone technology, it must draw heavily from these examples; this means constructing actionable datasets based on these results. From this data, manufacturers could see what works and what doesn’t, allowing them to optimize their products to account for all variables. Obtaining this data would require the deployment of civilian open-source intelligence gatherers to build relationships with battlefield operators and build datasets with actionable results.

The next advances in drone technology start with the information we take from today’s battlefields. In this way, such datasets could be among the world’s most valued in the coming years.