A $300 drone can blow up a tank or other combat vehicle that a 3 million USD or more one. This is the viewpoint of Ukrainian proponents of drone development, and it suggests the center of a revolution in technology currently remapping the Ukraine-Russia war.

The same data networks that enable phone apps and web surfing help drones navigate, so officials are imposing daily, patchwork shutdowns. The actions can be very disruptive to daily life.

Auterion’s “strike kits” — miniature computers known as Skynode that run the company’s software and include a camera and radio — can transform manually controlled drones into “AI-powered weapons systems” that cannot be jammed and can track a moving target from as far away as 1km, said Meier.