Although that’s a small number relative to the thousands of missiles bombarding the country, intercepting drones flying in bunches can be more difficult.
By early November, Ukraine was already in danger of running out of air-defense missiles to combat them.
For years, military strategists have anticipated the arrival of the so-called drone swarm, a large cluster of small flying machines that will herald a new era of intelligent warfare.
Imagining a perfected drone swarm, the science-fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson writes in his novel The Ministry for the Future:.
He envisions drone swarms bringing us to an era of warfare between competing robot armies, though today Russia is using its drone groups to attack civilian targets.
Of course, what all of these nightmares neglect is the notion of countermeasures, the second crucial element in the evolution of warfare.
One of these countermeasures, or one as yet unforeseen, will work, and drone swarms are not likely to wipe out America’s arsenal. »
