The current pattern of conflict in Ukraine suggests that the age of drone warfare has arrived. The U.S. Army, which leads joint efforts to counter the threat posed by unmanned air systems, anticipated this development years ago and has identified means for tracking and engaging hostile drones.
However, it is important to recognize that the drone challenge is in its infancy, at a level of sophistication comparable to where armored warfare stood a century ago. We should not assume that Ukraine’s claimed success in downing Russia’s drones with what the Wall Street Journal calls a “hodgepodge” of air defenses will work ten years from now.
The problem is that any country investing in drone systems has numerous options for making them more lethal and survivable—more options than defenders currently do.
Against that backdrop, the defensive weapons that seem to offer the greatest potential for keeping ahead of the drone threat are all non-kinetic rather than traditional kinetic interceptors. The term ”kinetic” in this context refers to force accomplished via motion, as in the case of a missile or other munition. Three types of non-kinetic counters to unmanned air systems appear viable within the current decade: electronic jamming, high-power microwaves, and lasers.
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