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The organization is modeled after an agency the Pentagon formed two decades ago to counter improvised explosive devices that insurgents used against U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Army oversees drone defense for the military. But critics of the Army's past approaches have said its counter-drone defenses are built on older technology and are not adaptable enough, given how quickly the drone threat has evolved on the battlefield in Ukraine. New technologies can detect and identify incoming drones, then take them out more efficiently. Older technology, critics say, is poor at identifying drones, including which ones pose the most acute and immediate threat.

Three Ukrainian soldiers raced across a field on a quad bike in eastern Ukraine, weaving at 100 kilometers an hour to avoid the attack drone chasing them from the sky. One fired a shotgun upward, blasting the tiny craft into pieces. This time it is just a training exercise. But with Russia having gained an upper hand in front line drone warfare for the first time since it invaded, Kyiv's troops are practicing hard.

Kyiv, Ukraine – Swarms of Russian kamikaze drones broke through Ukrainian air defence fire early on Tuesday, screeching and shrilling over Kyiv in one of the largest wartime attacks. Oleksandra Yaremchuk, who lives in the Ukrainian capital, said the hours-long sound of two or perhaps three drones above her house felt new and alarming. "This horrible buzz is the sound of death, it makes you feel helpless and panicky," the 38-year-old bank clerk told Al Jazeera, describing her sleepless night in the northern district of Obolon. "This time I heard it in stereo and in Dolby surround," she quipped. Back in 2022, she crisscrossed duct tape over her apartment's windows to avoid being hit by glass shards and spent most of the night in a shaky chair in her hallway.

The use of drones by several African countries in their fight against armed groups is causing significant harm to civilians, according to a new report. More than 943 civilians have been killed in at least 50 incidents across six African countries from November 2021 to November 2024, according to the report by Drone Wars UK. The report, titled Death on Delivery, reveals that strikes regularly fail to distinguish between civilians and combatants in their operations. Experts told Al Jazeera that the death toll is likely only the tip of the iceberg because many countries run secretive drone campaigns. As drones rapidly become the weapon of choice for governments across the continent, what are the consequences for civilians in conflict zones?

At least 100 North Korean troops deployed to Russia have been killed, with another 1,000 injured in combat against Ukrainian forces in intense fighting in the Kursk region, a South Korean lawmaker said on Thursday citing the country's spy agency. The heavy losses are attributed to the lack of experience by North Korean troops in drone warfare and unfamiliarity with the open terrain where they are taking part in the battle, a member of parliament Lee Seong-kweun told reporters. Lee was speaking after a closed-door briefing by the National Intelligence Service (NIS) to parliament.

Two years into Russia's invasion, advances in drone warfare have been hailed as a way for Ukraine to partly neutralize Russia's military advantage. The relatively inexpensive drones have allowed Kyiv's forces to strike back, including within Russia -- UAVs, or unmanned aerial vehicles, have reached targets hundreds of miles from the border -- although officials at the annual Munich Security Conference said the advances also come with risks. In particular, officials at the event, a gathering of world leaders, military personnel and international security advisers, warned it would become harder for NATO powers to establish control over airspace in conflict zones because of the technology. The prevalence of the technology means a greater need for European nations to bolster their air defense, two people warned on the sidelines of the conference.

On August 28th, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, Kathleen Hicks, announced what she called the Replicator initiative--an all-hands-on-deck effort to modernize the American arsenal by adding fleets of artificially intelligent, unmanned, relatively cheap weapons and equipment. She described these machines as "attritable," meaning that they can suffer attrition without compromising a mission. Imagine a swarm of hundreds or even thousands of unmanned aerial drones, communicating with each other as they collect intelligence on enemy-troop movements, and you will begin to understand the Deputy Secretary's vision for Replicator. Even if a sizable number of the drones were shot down, the information they'd gathered would have already been recorded and sent back to human operators on the ground. In one sense, Hicks's announcement, during an address titled "The Urgency to Innovate" at a meeting of National Defense Industrial Association, did not signal a wholly new approach.

On Saturday, October 29, a Russian fleet on the Black Sea near Sevastopol was attacked by 16 drones--nine in the air and seven in the water. Purportedly launched by Ukraine, no one knows how much damage was done, but video shot by the attacking drones showed that the vessels were unable to avoid being hit. In response to that and other successful attacks, Russia has retaliated with scores of missiles and Iranian-built Shahed-136 drones aimed at electrical and water systems throughout Ukraine. Despite daily reports of lands taken or lands liberated in the nine-month war, the conflict has been largely fought in the air, with artillery shells, rockets, cruise missiles, and, increasingly, drones. Small, cheap, relatively slow-moving, carrying far less of a wallop than a cruise missile or a 500-pound bomb, the Shaheds in particular have bedeviled Ukraine's otherwise excellent air defenses.

The war in Ukraine has an ominous new noise. People living in Afghanistan and Nagorno-Karabakh have talked about a sound that makes them run for cover. And on Monday, that whirr arrived in the skies above Kyiv. Russia has ramped up its use of Iranian-made "suicide drones" in Ukraine, which travel in groups and explode by diving at their targets, obliterating themselves in the process. On Monday, dozens of drones attacked Ukrainian cities during morning rush hour, killing at least four people when they struck an apartment building in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital.