How Drones Broke the Rules of War

by Susan Katz Keating

A wave of drone attacks lit up targets on June 1 deep inside Russian territory – another clear signal that unmanned warfare is rewriting the rules in real time.

But the idea of drones doing the killing – or at least the hunting – isn’t as new as it looks. The history of drones is long, strange, and full of surprises. The roots run deep into American military history, to a time when soldiers wore blue or grey and fought face-to-face with muskets and bayonets.

During the Civil War, both Union and Confederate forces experimented with weaponized balloons, floating explosive-filled envelopes into enemy territory with the hope they’d drift into supply depots and trigger devastating blasts. The results were mixed. The primitive tech of the day didn’t always cooperate; but the concept of remote, indirect attack had been born.

Fast-forward to World War I, and the idea found new traction. Elmer Sperry, a pioneering mind behind the gyroscope, helped launch what may have been the first successful unmanned aircraft. According to the Army, one of these early drones sank a captured German battleship – an ominous foreshadowing of the precision strikes to come.

By Vietnam, unmanned systems had gone from novelty to necessity. Reconnaissance drones flew thousands of missions, snapping photographs, dropping psychological warfare leaflets, and hunting for enemy missile systems. These drones were small, silent, and unarmed, and they changed the way commanders saw the battlefield.

The 1990’s brought the era of NATO drone operations in the Balkans. At first, enemy troops would wave at the strange aircraft overhead, mistaking them for surveillance novelties. But when drone flyovers were consistently followed by airstrikes, the waves turned to gunfire. The opposition adapted quickly, and of the 24 drones deployed in that theater, most were shot down.

Then came Desert Storm. In one of the war’s most surreal moments, Iraqi soldiers – isolated, exhausted, and broken – emerged from bunkers waving white bed sheets and surrendering not to tanks nor Marines, but to a small, circling Unmanned Aerial System. Finally, the machines had gone from unreliable balloons to psychological weapons of war.

Now, they’re doing laps in the Atlantic.

In a recent test run that felt ripped from a techno-thriller, the Royal Navy pulled off a slick bit of unmanned-crewed teamwork. Flying from the deck of the RFA Tidespring, a remote controlled Puma played lookout for a Merlin Mk2 helicopter. The chopper cut its radar, went dark, and relied entirely on live video from the drone in order to chase its prey. The Puma has done recon work before. But this marked the first time it guided a manned aircraft in real-time.

Reports surfaced last year that Russia has used Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones against Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv. Both Russia and Iran have denied the claims. But no one could deny what unfolded inside Russia on June 1.

In a new twist on “special operation,” swarms of unmanned systems struck deep behind the lines. The drones emerged from truck beds, and buzzed into action. They targeted four critical airbases, at Belaya, Diaghilevo, Olenya, and Ivanovo.

In Irkutsk, Russian men tried to fight back in real time. They used rocks and sticks to try to break the drones that were being launched from trucks. It didn’t work.

When the smoke cleared, dozens of strategic aircraft lay dead on the tarmac. 

Moscow remained silent in the immediate aftermath. The state news agency, TASS, ignored the attacks, but the Ministry of Defense decried the “terrorist attacks” from “kamikaze drones.”

The age of drone warfare has arrived. And it’s not just knocking on the door; it’s kicking it down.

Susan Katz Keating is the publisher of Soldier of Fortune Magazine.