Ukraine drone attack shows familiar-looking drones can be terrifying weapons
An attack in Russia highlights how small drones can be outfitted with new software and components to turn them into killing machines. It's changing the game in war and bringing new worries in the U.S.
A stunning attack in Russia shows we live in a world where a deadly battlefield technology looks a lot like something you might see flying around at the beach.
The carefully choreographed attack dubbed Russia's "Pearl Harbor" comes as Ukraine has seen incredible success weaponizing cheap drones – ones not all that different from those commonly used in the United States as aerial action cameras or for spectacular light shows.
"We may be at an inflection event," said Mai'a Cross, a professor of international affairs and diplomacy at Northeastern University. "The nature of warfare has transformed."
The attack has been praised by supporters of Ukraine as an innovative, economical and surgical way to conduct warfare. It also highlights a longstanding worry that drones represent an emerging danger – and years of efforts to combat that danger.
How different are war drones from play drones?
The U.S. military has been using expensive attack drones since at least 2001 during the war in Afghanistan. But the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 launched a new kind of drone warfare. A small nation suddenly found itself facing a much larger, richer and better-equipped country.
"From my conversations with Ukrainians, the supply chain for the drones is simply commercial regular drones that we might see in daily life, but repurposed," Cross said.
Combining these small, ready-made drones with new software and components turns them into killing machines at a fraction of the cost of traditional heavy military technology, and at breakneck speed.
"They even have tech experts embedded with military units who are able to make changes to the drones right there in the battlefield, updating the software and repairing on the fly," Cross said.
The sheer number of small drones being deployed in Ukraine and Russia dwarfs their use anywhere else. Ukraine says it is producing up to 4 million drones annually, a number Russia says it can match.
The June 1 attack may have used inexpensive drones but it was also meticulously planned for more than a year and a half, according to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
"This war is still heavily dependent on manpower," Cross said.
Could we be on the edge of drone terror?
Americans are already primed to worry about drones, after a wave of mysterious sightings in New Jersey sparked fears and some hysteria in late 2024.
(In January, President Trump said the "large numbers" of drones seen by residents were authorised to be flown by the FAA for research and other reasons. "This was not the enemy," Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said.)
But experts, including the U.S. military, are already thinking deeply about drone risks – from terrorism to pranks.
"The simple act of spraying water or some other household cleaning agent over a crowded area would be enough to create panic," a U.S. military report issued in 2021 said. And swarms of drones could potentially overwhelm defensive capabilities, the report said.
Both the military, government and private industry are studying and planning how to thwart such attacks. Most recently, on April 1 the Congressional Research Service issued a report on countering unmanned aircraft systems.
Drones are regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration, which requires them to be registered and in some cases that drone pilots to be licensed. There are strict rules about where they can be flown, with airspace restrictions around airports, military bases and other "no drone" zones.
Under FAA rules, all drones over 0.55 pounds are required to broadcast identification signals, much like an airplane, to provide identification and location information, to allow for air safety and security. The FAA's Remote ID rule went into effect in March of 2024. Drone operators who conduct unsafe or unauthorized operations face fines up to $75,000 per violation.
Dozens of startups have launched working in the anti-drone sector, enough that there is an annual conference where researchers gather to discuss the state of the art.
Drones often used as a part of everyday life
So far in the United States, drones are an inexpensive, convenient and hugely useful tool that have made significant inroads into many arenas that might seem improbable at first, said John Coggin, associate director of Virginia Tech's Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership program in Blacksburg, Virginia.
Drones are used by farmers to inspect fields for insect damage and whether enough fertilizer has been applied, and to check irrigation lines. They've made a huge impact in industry, allowing critical infrastructure such as power lines, bridges and buildings to be cheaply and quickly inspected. Insurance companies use them for post-storm claim inspections. Realtors love them for shots that once would prohibitively expensive. They're a big help in search and rescue operations.
As drier conditions have made fireworks displays potential wildfire risks, increasingly intricate and sophisticated drone light shows are replacing them.
This is all possible because in 2016 the Federal Aviation Administration released new regulations that opened the door for commercial applications of drone technology, which have been updated multiple times since then. More rules have since been released, with new regulations in the works that would allow for still more uses.
All these productive uses of drones come amid an international effort to rein in the potential threats to civilians – and some are hopeful that the threat of weaponized drones won't spread.
"There have been many cases in which we humans could have taken the route that would have led to disaster but we collectively chose not to," Cross said.