Drone arms race transforms war in Ukraine, with U.S. now learning lessons | 60 Minutes
In a Nutshell
Drones have revolutionized Ukraine's war, inflicting 80% of casualties in a 10m-wide "kill zone," with innovations like fiber-optic-controlled drones, Sea Baby sea drones sinking 11 Russian vessels, and ground robots holding off attacks—boosting Ukraine's production to 4 million annually at under $1,000 per enemy kill. Ukraine's rapid one-week innovation cycle has created a drone arms race stalemate, drawing lessons for the US and NATO, which are adapting through training, innovation labs like The Forge, and integrating drones with traditional firepower to counter threats from Iran and Russia. Future breakthroughs include drone swarms, as the US learns from Ukraine's bloody experience amid recent Iranian drone attacks.
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Holly Williams on assignment for 60 Minutes. When America went to war with Iran last month, the US military faced an enemy using mass-produced drones to deadly effect. The same weapons have been used for years in Ukraine, some supplied by Iran to Russia. Unmanned and remotely controlled, drones have transformed the Ukrainian battlefield. They're estimated to inflict around 80% of combat casualties on both sides. The technology is revolutionary and evolving rapidly. The US military is learning lessons from Ukraine to adapt.
Forget everything you think you know about warfare.
The traditional front line in Ukraine has expanded to a roughly 10m wide strip called the kill zone. Anyone who sets foot there can be spotted by a drone operator and hunted down. This was a narrow escape for some Ukrainian soldiers. They call these Frankenstein tanks, retrofitted with cages and mesh to deflect drone strikes. Netting covers roads close to the front, designed to catch drones before they hit their target. To evade interference from electronic jammers, both militaries launch drones attached to miles-long spools of fiber optic wire, leaving behind a digital spider web.
But the drones are not just in the air.
Continuously innovating. >> Yes, for sure.
Beside a frozen lake, Ukraine's security service showed one of their most treasured weapons. It looks like a fishing boat with an outboard motor. It's a sea drone developed in Ukraine called Sea Baby. The operator's identity is protected because he's a target for Russian assassination.
What's the payload on this? >> It can really take 2,000 kg of explosives. Is that enough to take out a Russian warship? >> Yes.
Produced for around $300,000, Ukrainian sea drones have destroyed warships that cost tens of millions. Ukraine says it's used them to sink or disable 11 Russian vessels.
Which one is more useful, a warship or a sea drone like the Sea Baby? >> Sea drone. I think it's really hard to destroy these drones because they are smaller. That's why to have like 10 ships like this is much better than kind of one big one. >> Well, to be clear, you're saying you'd rather have 10 sea drones than a warship. >> Yeah.
Necessity is the mother of invention. Alexander Commission started out the war as the CEO of Ukraine's railways. He was so good at helping millions of Ukrainians evacuate that President Vladimir Zalensky recruited him to become the architect of Ukraine's drone program.
Cheap, fast, efficient.
Commission helped boost Ukraine's production from 2,000 drones a year to 4 million. For the outnumbered Ukrainians, the inexpensive new technology has leveled the battlefield.
It's a data driven war. We speak numbers. It's a numbers game. >> What do you mean by a numbers game? >> We have to count everything. We have to count number of drones we use, efficiency of each of them, cost to kill for every Russian. >> And what is the cost of killing every Russian? You would be surprised, but the cost of killing every Russian is less than $1,000. Now, that's why they send so many people to die on the front line. They don't count them. They don't value them. >> Would you want to be in Vladimir Putin's shoes right now? >> No. Strategically, he lost. He wanted us to become weaker, became much stronger.
10 retired US generals agree that Russia isn't winning the war despite its territorial gains. Some caution that Ukraine isn't winning either, but with drone help has drawn Russia into a stalemate.
This is like an obstacle course for drones. Ukraine's military has set up drone training academies to teach the new technology.
Patience and practice. >> Yes. I mean, practice makes perfect. Am I right?
And the rapid shifts in tactics that come with it. This ground drone mounted with a 50 caliber machine gun recently held off a Russian attack singlehandedly for 45 days straight. In January, three Russian soldiers surrendered to a similar robotic drone.
Our main idea, we can send the robot and to not risk human life. So there human life is the most important.
Ukraine makes more than 95% of its own military drones, harnessing talent from unusual places. Roman Teachenko, a former brewery engineer, founded Tenor and developed remote-controlled armored evacuation drones to transport wounded soldiers. They demonstrated at a military training ground and claimed the drones have saved hundreds of lives.
How do you figure out what your next design needs to be? >> We are working with the end users. >> End users. That means the soldiers who are on the front line. Yeah. >> The soldiers said, "We need a drone to do evacuations and you built it." >> Yep. That's how it works in Ukraine. We are designing for soldiers.
The same drone base can be adapted to mount a 40 mm grenade launcher controlled from a bunker hundreds of miles away.
When it comes to drones, how quickly is the technology changing? >> Innovation cycle is roughly one week. It means from the point you send a drone to the front line, get the feedback, change something and get the new version, it could be as short as one week. >> Are the Russians also innovating? >> Yes, definitely. We have to admit it. >> Who has the edge at this point? >> I would say it's equilibrium.
Equilibrium in a drone arms race and both sides will take any help they can get.
Air Logix makes aerial surveillance drones for the Ukrainian military. Their production is spread across more than 20 sites to minimize risk because they've already been bombed twice by Russia. The company recently secured over a million dollars from an American investment fund that specializes in Ukrainian drone technology. It's run by two former US Marines: William McNalty, with a background in humanitarian work, and Lenor Karafa, who built a career in finance after the military. Their investors are wealthy individuals who support Ukraine.
I worked at one or two jobs after the military that were more about the money than anything else. That is not my main motivation. >> You didn't join the Marines for the money. >> What's your main motivation? >> Service, patriotism, democracy, mission, and Ukraine ticks all of those boxes. >> It ticks all of those boxes. >> I fell in love with the Ukrainians when I arrived. How can you not come to help the people that are literally fighting for what NATO was created for, to stop Russian aggression.
At a NATO training exercise in Estonia last year, the alliance tested its vulnerability against drones. Around 1,000 NATO personnel were defeated in the drill by a group of drone operators, some Ukrainian.
Is this a revolution in warfare? >> It is. >> No question in your mind. >> No question. You know, in every war there is innovation from going from horses to tanks to machine guns and then tactics evolve in response to that. And that is why it's just incredibly important for the US, for our European allies to learn these lessons from Ukraine. >> There's a real risk that the US would lose its military supremacy if it doesn't adapt to modern conditions on the battlefield. We're going to be going up against these same unmanned systems that Russia is using against Ukraine.
The US military intends to hang on to its supremacy, not by buying, stockpiling, or replicating Ukraine's drones, but by tapping into the same passion for innovation the Ukrainians have.
At the Whipsawn garrison in Germany, The Forge is one of dozens of drone innovation labs set up by the US military around the world.
Cable channels you run through keep everything nice and flush. >> Officer, good. >> The legs slide out and you just add a spacer.
Any service member with an idea or interest can request time in one of the labs.
It's adding a culture of innovation and that's new. That's not something that we've really seen in the last 20 years. Is it possible that a soldier will walk into one of those innovation labs with an idea that could be a breakthrough in drone technology? >> It's entirely possible. The thing with drones and innovation is what I would describe as unlimited innovation potential. If you can think of it, you can make a drone do it.
Expedited basic training. Captain Ronan Septton was first deployed to Germany with the army's second cavalry regiment, not long after Russia launched its invasion in 2022. His job was to give basic training to over 8,000 Ukrainian soldiers. Almost immediately, the Americans began learning from the Ukrainians.
The first really poignant lesson for us was there needs to be more drones. They need to be everywhere involved in the training to add to the realism. >> So the Ukrainian soldiers were giving that to you as feedback. >> Absolutely. >> Did you then talk to your commanding officers about it? >> We went to every senior commander we could. The thing that we wanted to communicate was this is important. It's changing warfare and here's how we can actually implement it now. We're already doing it. We should scale this.
The message got through and now Septton's joined the Army's Ukraine lessons learned task force. It translates experience from Ukraine's scrappy fighting force to America's sprawling military. The new technology does not make the US military's traditional firepower obsolete, but it needs to adapt urgently, countering drones developed by America's adversaries.
You still need howitzers. You still need Abrams, but you have to figure out how to get the drones to work with the Howitzers and Abrams. >> Exactly. And that's the challenge, but also the goal to become ready for the next conflict.
We see it with the armed forces of Ukraine. They have learned these lessons through blood. There will of course be additional lessons that we will learn perhaps through blood, but it will only make us better at what we already are.
The day after that interview, the United States went to war. And the Iranian drones began flying. The first Americans killed in the conflict were targeted with a drone. The US military is now learning its lessons in blood, just as Ukraine did.
The next breakthrough in battlefield drones: drones working together like a swarm of bees.
Exactly. >> Pretty scary. >> It is scary. Absolutely.
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