Footage from multiple drones coming out of Ukraine shows an unlucky Russian Soldier becoming the target of several drone dropped munitions in Eastern Ukraine. It's unclear if the Russian survived in the end.

It appears as if the drones in this video are targeting the Russian Soldier with VOG17 grenades, however that information cannot be entirely confirmed from the video alone as these could be another variant device. One thing that I've learned from the past week at SHOT is just how innovative the Ukrainian military has been with their drone dropped munitions in the past six months. At each unit, there is a dedicated team of volunteer civilians who are working around the clock specifically to modify drones for the purpose of weaponizing them.

It is abundantly clear to me that in the very near future, every infantry squad in every military around the world will have a drone operator, similar to how they currently have a radio operator. There is no stopping this movement. From what I'm told by a few guys who have been on the ground in Ukraine recently, when these drones go up the entire battlefield takes a tactical pause. No one knows if the drones are weaponized, reconnaissance based, or kamikaze FPV drones. And at no time time does anyone know who is in direct control of the asset in the air. As a result, the only current solution is to get under hard cover.

Troops that fail to get under hard cover often end up like the guy in this video. Repeatedly targeted and harassed until they're eliminated, or until the drones run out of up-time.

While it's easy to imagine a world where electronic counter-measures can be used to defeat the drone threat, the reality on the ground is different. Unlike improvised explosive devices from the Global War on Terror that statically received radio signals to detonate them, drones are highly mobile and able to descend and climb in altitude to get outside of the range of ECM systems with relative ease. An ECM jammer is not immediate, and something that can maneuver back to a clear signal space can easily defeat an electronic counter-measure system like the WarlockBlue or Thor.

The only realistic way to defeat this threat is to increase the training of ground troops to insane levels, making small arms on the ground a larger threat against the drones themselves, and weaponizing other drones to act as counter-drone warfare systems. Alternatively, I imagine that an anti-drone 40mm man-portable system can be developed and delivered via 40mm launchers. That would probably look like something that tracks and follows commonly used frequencies for controlling drones with the intent of bringing them down with a net, or by detonating a small explosive to immediately disable the drone itself.

The next five years of warfare are going to be wild. Anyone who develops a system to reliably defeat the drone threat on the battlefield will be looking at large government contracts. If you're an engineer, this is a problem that requires an immediate solution. The Islamic State and Free Syrian Army initially got the ball rolling on this, but the war in Ukraine has shown us how the systems can be perfected and used in near peer combat.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.