Soldier of Fortune Magazine The Journal of Professional Adventurers
by Susan Katz Keating
China and other foreign actors are using Ukraine as a testbed, deploying cut-outs and deniable assets to gather real-time data on drones, intelligence sources told Soldier of Fortune.
The grainy figures moved across the screen, creeping through murky terrain like shadows come to life. A blip emerged, hovering above them. Suddenly, the shadow-figures exploded in light. My friend Sloane, who works in warzones and deniable spaces, showed me this footage soon after he returned from a contracting gig in Ukraine. The blip was a killer-drone, he said, while the images were picked up from a tracker-drone’s video feed. The tracker belonged to analysts from places far outside the conflict – drawn not by ideology, but by wanting to see how things work amid blood and chaos.
READ MORE: Russia’s New Fibre-Optic Drones Evade Jamming in Ukraine
It goes beyond mercenary traffic or idle war tourism, Sloane said. Foreign actors are moving through the Ukrainian battlespace under vague credentials, analyzing various systems and methods.
“Live targets produce real data,” Sloane said as we sat in the backroom of an Irish pub, staring at his laptop. “The war is one big test lab.”
All photos are screen shots from a Russian video feed.
Western analysts have warned of this since 2022, when researchers arrived in Ukraine along with the troops and the tanks.
“We have knowledge of various actors doing similar activity,” said John Wagner, a retired US Army officer and former executive in the administration. They’re not just watching. “We know of them somewhat contributing to what’s going on there, in order to test what seems to be the most effective or least effective.”
At first, the new voices spoke mostly Russian. They headed for the battlefields to pick through the wreckage of Shahed UAV’s that were sent from Iran. Russian engineers used the findings to beef up the Shahed.
“They’ve changed the design, electronics, and now use a more powerful warhead,” according to Ukrainian researcher Oleksandr Vysikan.
But other newcomers are 3PA’s – Third-Party Actors – speaking Chinese, Farsi, or English.
The big draw is the surge in unmanned aerial systems.
“Global militaries have kept a sharp eye on drone activity between Ukraine and Russia,” Wagner said. “They’ve seen the evolution of how things have gone and are looking at how they can stop many of the procedures these two entities have.”
Word on the street is, many of these 3PA’s are cutouts, Sloane told me.
“They claim to be anything – aid workers, contractors, even journalists,” he said. “But nobody really knows who they are or who they’re working for.”
Months earlier at a cafe in Ukraine, my friend overheard a couple clean-cut Westerners passing around handheld devices like party favors. They spoke casually about “going downrange” to compare data. That moment, trivial on the surface, could mean nothing. But Sloane had seen enough to know better. You don’t compare readings unless you’re testing something.
His questions overall align with what U.S. intelligence sources tell me about their concerns, particularly in regard to UAV’s.
Russian drones routinely contain foreign-made components from countries including the United States, the Netherlands, Malaysia, and China.
“The internal electronics are the biggest difference between the versions of this drone,” Vysikan said while speaking to RFE/RL. “They have completely changed.”
Many now feature a secondary navigation system using GSM technology, allowing operators to track them via mobile networks even if primary guidance is jammed.
“This system enables the drone’s path and behavior to be monitored remotely. If it deviates or crashes, operators know it was neutralized,” Vysikan said.
How those components perform is of great interest to an international host of actors, a U.S. intelligence official told Soldier of Fortune.
“It’s one of the threads we’re pulling,” the official said – one of them leading to China. Investigators want to document whether the communist nation is using circuitous cut-outs to monitor how drones perform in Ukraine.
This comes amid a major effort from the administration to examine how hundreds of foreign scientists, including those from China, obtained visas to conduct research at American universities.
Beijing has addressed in general the topic of international collaboration on military technology.
“China has always taken a prudent, responsible approach to military exports and is willing to share the achievements of its equipment development with friendly countries,” said Jiang Bin, spokesperson for China’s Ministry of National Defense. He made his comments this month while acknowledging that several countries are talking to Beijing about weapons procurement.
The ministry did not immediately respond to a request from Soldier of Fortune regarding Chinese analysts and cut-outs in Ukraine.
Where is this leading?
Preparation for future conflict, such as a potential conflict over Taiwan.
Despite the real effects of war in real time, the test lab process is oddly bloodless, Sloane said.
“It’s war, but to some of these guys, it’s just R&D with live targets.”
Outside in the main room of the pub, a glass broke and someone shouted over a soccer match. Here in the backroom, the only sound was the soft hum of a laptop fan, rising from the heat of a paused video. It was the future of warfare, frozen on the screen.
Susan Katz Keating is the publisher and editor-in-chief of Soldier of Fortune Magazine.
