War changes the rules: The Pentagon opens an anti-kamikaze drone school

The buzz is getting closer, the panic is growing. Is it a drone? A flock of drones? What do they carry? Explosives, chemical weapons, or are they just bait to distract the troops? Welcome to the new era of warfare, where the enemy can strike from the sky at any time, with cheap but deadly weapons. Kamikaze drones, nothing more than commercial drones hacked and armed by military or terrorist groups, are changing the rules of the game and putting even large armies such as the Russian one or American. The latter has just created the first "anti-drone university" to train troops for this new, insidious threat.

From Predator to DJI: the evolution of kamikaze drones in war

Something civilians may not grasp is how cheap drones are fundamentally changing the face of warfare. I mean civilians who don't read statements from people like Edward Snowden. Years ago the US dominated this space with the $40 million Predators. Now anyone can pick up a DJI drone for a couple of hundred euros and assemble some DIY explosive attacks. Consider the virtually negligible cost of the drone and explosives compared to the costs of the vehicles, soldier lives, soldier training costs, and the equipment they carry.

Kamikaze drones: a nightmare for troops on the ground

Another factor of utmost importance: drones can transmit footage to their pilots, and therefore provide learning experiences with each attack, in a way that artillery can never provide. Have you seen real footage of a kamikaze drone being flown into a troop transport? Just one drone is hard enough to deal with. What should a platoon do, if encountered a swarm of drones on the field?

These killer drones are used to devastating effect, incredibly effectively on unsuspecting troops and vehicles.

Only one drone already does damage. Think of a swarm.

To date, there is no complete defense system against kamikaze drone attacks. This leaves once-dominant military forces vulnerable. In an effort to counter the threat, the US military opened the Joint C-SUAS (Counter-Small Unmanned Aerial Systems) University, where it aims to train 1.000 soldiers per year in a variety of the latest anti-drone countermeasures.

The anti-drone University

The Wall Street Journal was able to visit the facility and observe some of the training. It's a little disheartening to see how ineffective the (revealed) countermeasures seem; take them down one by one? Use laser weapons? One can only hope that there are more effective techniques that are being kept under wraps. The images are an indefinable mixture of the frightening and the ridiculous. They convey to me all the inadequacy of the military system compared to this ultra-modern breakthrough in air weapons.

But the opening of this school marks a turning point in awareness of the threat posed by low-cost drones. They are no longer just surveillance tools or niche weapons: they have become a central element of modern warfare, accessible to any group with a few thousand dollars and a little ingenuity. Countering this threat will require not only specific training, such as that provided by the Joint C-SUAS University, but also the development of new technologies. Jamming systems, interceptor drones, directed energy weapons: these are just some of the directions in which military research is moving to try to regain the advantage in the air domain.

But the challenge is far from simple. Commercial drones are increasingly smaller, faster and autonomous, and can be modified in unpredictable ways. A swarm of kamikaze drones can saturate even the most sophisticated defenses, or simply distract troops while the real attack comes from another direction.

Towards a new era of air warfare

We are only at the beginning of this new era of air warfare, where the boundary between civil and military, between high-tech and low-cost, is becoming increasingly blurred. Drones have “democratized” air power, putting it in the hands of anyone with a few hundred dollars and a target to hit. For militaries around the world, this represents an existential challenge. It's no longer just about having the fastest jets or the most powerful missiles: it's about being able to defend yourself against a swarm of buzzing enemies, piloted by an invisible and determined adversary.

The Joint C-SUAS University is a first step in this direction, but there is still a long way to go. New doctrines, new technologies, new alliances will be needed to face this global threat. Because in a world where anyone can have their own personal war drone, everyone's safety is at risk.