By Mitzi Perdue
September 27, 2024
CEPA
The author visited the highly secret building where Ukraine’s drone operations are coordinated to see the pilots and ground crews at work. In the early hours of September 18, a Ukrainian drone strike almost obliterated a large Russian munitions depot in Toropets in Tver oblast, Russia. The huge explosions that followed registered as a small earthquake on monitors in neighboring countries.
The attack marked not just a tactical victory, but a powerful demonstration of the direction of modern warfare. The strike obliterated advanced weaponry like Iskander ballistic missiles and Grad rockets, inflicted an estimated $1bn in damage, and severely disrupted Russian military logistics. The head of Estonian military intelligence estimated that as many as 750,000 shells may have been destroyed at the Toropets site, around two to three months of Russian consumption. This was not an isolated event. It was followed by numerous other attacks on military structures including Tikhoretsk, and an oil refinery in Ryazan. It’s the culmination of Ukraine’s strategic embrace of drone technology, which has now advanced to such an extent that it redefines how conflicts are fought. In September, I had the privilege of accompanying former CIA Director Gen. David Petraeus to the unmanned aerial system headquarters at a secret location outside of Kyiv.
There was a James Bond vibe to the experience. The outside of the building was nondescript, but inside there were numerous individuals (I can’t disclose their number) sitting in front of widescreen monitors, tracking in fine detail activities occurring hundreds of miles away, whether on the zero line where active fighting is going on, or even further, inside Russia itself.
The drone teams, divided into pilot and ground units, must operate in synchrony. Thousands of cameras and crowd-sourced intelligence from the frontlines feed into their software, guiding their drones to strategic targets. But it’s a game of strategy, of conservation, where only 2% to 3% of the drones are allocated for one-way missions. Each flight is calculated, and each drone is preserved for the right moment.
As the ground team positions itself near the frontline, the pilots in Kyiv watch in real-time as the drones take flight, heading for their targets. One night, a Russian tank becomes the objective. The drone locks in, closing the last kilometer under manual control. With a sharp flash on the screen, flames erupt from the tank. It’s one more victory, one more step toward the goal of breaking the enemy’s resolve.
This was just one example of many successes in Ukraine’s drone warfare strategy. In the strike on Tver, over 30,000 tonnes of ammunition were estimated to have been obliterated, including critical anti-aircraft missile stockpiles. Another struck a facility in Krasnodar oblast in September, and in Voronezh oblast, and there were other attacks too.
Their destruction could severely delay Russian military operations, a serious setback in their ability to maintain the intensity of their strikes on Ukrainian soil. These drone-led operations have steadily shifted the war’s momentum by targeting key logistical hubs and minimizing Ukraine’s resource expenditure.
The drone teams keep sharp by competing with each other. Among the units, teams vie for points based on the targets they destroy — artillery, tanks, or other enemy equipment. Weekly rankings drive them to excel, and the operators track their progress on graphs that flash on their phones. It’s a high-stakes game, one where strategy, skill, and technology merge to create what must be a Russian nightmare.
Despite the challenges — limited funding, reliance on civilian components, and the constant threat of Russian countermeasures — the drone brigade pushes on. Frequencies are regularly switched to outsmart the enemy’s defenses, and new prototypes are developed almost daily. “A jungle of technical solutions,” as one engineer calls it. Gen. Petraeus nods in approval: “That’s the way it should be.”
The drone teams innovate constantly. Every morning, they receive detailed reports of the previous night’s missions: the range, the targets, and the results. The engineers analyze the data and improve the drones, adjusting and innovating within hours. It’s this adaptability that keeps Ukraine ahead, even as the enemy tries to fight back with electronic warfare and frequency jamming.
The drone revolution is ever-expanding. The skies and seas are battlegrounds where Ukrainian innovation leads the charge. In less than half a year, what started as a grassroots effort has grown into an organized and effective drone brigade. They have proven that Ukraine isn’t just a battleground; it’s a testing ground for the future of unmanned warfare. As General Petraeus remarks: “What’s going on here is something that isn’t happening anywhere else in the world.”
With every mission, Ukraine gets closer to achieving the impossible — winning against a much larger military force. The war is far from over, but with the drone teams constantly evolving, innovating, and outsmarting the enemy, the future of warfare is being shaped in the land, sea, and skies of Ukraine. And when the war finally ends, Ukraine’s lessons will shape the future of global defense. The drones are not just a tool; they are the future.
Mitzi Perdue is a journalist reporting from and about Ukraine.
Mitzi Perdue has had a lifelong fascination with what it takes to lead the best life. She got to watch up close and personal how her father co-founded and was President of the Sheraton Hotel chain, and she also got to watch how her late husband, Frank Perdue, built his father-and-son chicken company into a company that today employees 21,000 people. Both men had tremendous focus, they had a penchant for action, and they had wide-ranging interests which led them to see opportunities that others missed. They were also men who developed tremendous talent stacks, and when they needed to learn a new skill, they made the time and took the effort to learn the new skill. Mitzi’s professional career includes being a former rice grower, past presidency of the 40,000 member American Agri-Women, and as a writer, in the 1990s, her nationally syndicated column, “The Environment and You,” was the most widely syndicated environmental column in the US.
Mitzi holds degrees from Harvard University and from George Washington University, is a past president of the 40,000 member American Agri-Women and was one of the U.S. Delegates to the United Nations Conference on Women in Nairobi. She currently writes for the Association of Foreign Press Correspondents and for Psychology Today, plus her work has appeared in publications including the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Examiner, the Epoch Times, and USA Today. As a war correspondent, Mitzi has visited Ukraine three times as the guest of the Kyiv Region Police. Many of her interviews were conducted in bomb shelters while the cities she was visiting were under active attack. In December of 2022, she auctioned her Atocha emerald engagement ring for $1.2 million, with all the proceeds going to benefit Ukraine. She was a syndicated columnist for 22 years, and her weekly environmental columns were distributed first by California’s Capitol News and later, by Scripps Howard News Service, to roughly 420 newspapers. For two years she was a Commissioner on the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science. Mitzi also produced and hosted more than 400 half hour interview shows for Mitzi’s Country Magazine on KXTV, the CBS affiliate in Sacramento, California. In addition, she hosted and produced more than 300 editions of Mitzi’s Country Comments, which was syndicated to 76 stations. Her radio series, Tips from the Farmer to You, were broadcast weekly for two years on the Coast to Coast Radio Network.