The world’s rushing to Ukraine to study drone warfare |
The scramble for battlefield drone experience has become a global phenomenon.
While I was embedded with Colombian soldiers fighting on Ukraine’s front lines, several told me they’d battled cartels and insurgents but sought something new: the chance to learn drone warfare.
Eastern Europe is where the action is. Ukrainian drones struck a Russian shadow-fleet oil tanker Friday in what Kyiv described as an unprecedented special operation carried out more than 1,200 miles from the country.
It was the first time aerial drones, rather than naval drones, were used to disable a shadow-fleet tanker. Ukraine also recently hit a Russian submarine with an underwater drone.
Since Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion, both Kyiv and, especially, Moscow have relied heavily on foreign fighters as casualties have risen.
Russia has sourced personnel from the Middle East, Latin America, Africa and Asia, including more than 15,000 North Korean troops deployed to the Kursk front.
Those North Korean soldiers suffered heavy early losses due to poor preparation, but Ukraine’s intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov warned they are adapting quickly, learning small-unit tactics, first-person-view drone use and counter-drone measures.
This unprecedented exposure is being fed back into Pyongyang’s 1.3-million-strong army.
Ukrainian defense intelligence deputy head Maj. Gen. Vadym Skibitskyi said in October that North Korea has begun mass-producing FPV and........