And it’s the Ukrainian government’s new production target for 2025—solely from Ukrainian factories. “Ukraine is now the world leader in drone warfare,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky boasted.

A growing proportion of these are equipped with AI guidance, allowing them to lock on to targets in the final phase of flight even if the link between pilot and drone is jammed. The automatic guidance can kick in at distances of 2km or more,

With America’s drone technology a disappointment on the battlefield, defense startups have joined forces with Ukrainian manufacturers to build better, war-proven aircraft for the U.S. military. U.S. startups have spent billions of venture-capital dollars in hopes of developing the small drones that the Pentagon says it needs for future conflicts,