- 2 days ago
The world can't keep up with the pace of military tech innovation in Ukraine, triggering a global rethink of how wars are fought. We were given rare access to units already fighting the war of the future — with high-speed interceptor drones, semi-autonomous sea robots, uncrewed ground robots, and bomber drones using AI to swarm the enemy. Ukraine is fighting the war of the future, today.
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00:01Ukraine is building an army without people.
00:05And it's armed to the teeth.
00:08And on a trip across the country, we were given a rare glimpse of what that future looks like.
00:13OK, that's recording now.
00:22We were shown robots that can launch drones
00:28and evacuate the wounded.
00:31We haven't enough humans in Ukraine like Russia,
00:34and UGV could save our lives, soldiers' lives.
00:40Since 2022, many Western countries have been using Ukraine as a laboratory
00:45to field test their very latest weapons systems.
00:48But what we found on this trip is that Ukraine is producing its own home-made technology
00:54which is capable of completely changing the shape of this conflict.
01:01We saw drones guided by Starlink and artificial intelligence,
01:05and remote-controlled speedboats hunting Russian targets far out to sea.
01:11I think that was so easy because that looked like a computer game.
01:16If you thought the conflict so far had triggered unprecedented innovation,
01:20what we've seen here is that in this war there is no such thing as standing still.
01:26Everything is evolving faster, being produced more cheaply,
01:29and flying and driving further than ever before.
01:41We were taken to a secret location somewhere in the Kyiv region
01:44to report on the very latest in interceptor drone technology.
01:51And the timing couldn't have been more relevant.
01:54This was the day Ukraine would suffer its heaviest aerial attack of the war to date.
02:02As we were filming, around 800 Russian drones and missiles
02:06were already in Ukrainian airspace or on the way.
02:13The soldiers here told us this was the first time a GoPro camera
02:16had ever been mounted on an interceptor.
02:19We're filming, we're filming.
02:27This is the Sting, a first-person view interceptor drone created by the company Wild Hornets.
02:33It holds a 500-gram warhead and can fly up to 280 kilometers an hour.
02:45Hundreds of drones, some of them jet-powered, were fired at Ukraine that day.
02:49The Ukrainian air force says it shot down 95%.
02:53Wild Hornets is a poster child of Ukraine's defense industry,
02:57sharing almost daily videos on social media of the damage its Sting interceptors are doing to Russia's shaheads.
03:04On this site, we saw half a dozen soldiers learn to launch and pilot the Sting,
03:09all while watching for real targets up above.
03:13In this film, some faces and voices have been disguised,
03:16and location details have been deliberately withheld
03:19to protect the safety of those involved.
03:30Interceptor drones take off vertically before flying like a missile.
03:35This is the sound of a Sting travelling at 250 kilometers an hour.
03:46Wild Hornets started shooting down Iranian-style shahead drones only in the spring of 2025.
03:53While some mobile defense units still use machine guns to take down drones,
03:59interceptors now account for the majority of hits.
04:02They were telling us they produce over 10,000 units a month,
04:06and are low cost, high speed, and can climb to heights of up to 7 kilometers in the sky.
04:12And they need all of this to be able to keep up with the wave after wave of shahead and
04:18geran drones
04:19that are being launched from Russia every single day.
04:23Each Sting costs around $2,000,
04:26a fraction of the cost of the Russian one-way attack drones they chase,
04:30which are estimated to cost at least $20,000 each.
04:33The more Sting's produced, and the more effective they are, the more lives are saved.
04:40The motivation is the same as I was at the beginning.
04:42I want to save my land, my relatives, my family.
04:46But now it's a little bit transformed, and I want to die.
04:51The Russians are also innovating quickly.
04:54Their latest generation attack drones are jet-powered
04:57and can be controlled remotely by operators, rather than following preset coordinates.
05:01In response, Wild Hornets told us it is already working on the Sting too.
05:07It's faster, has thermal imaging cameras, and will use AI to identify targets
05:12and help the drone make its final approach.
05:16The company has even tested something called Hornet Vision Control,
05:20which allows pilots to control the Sting via a network of satellite links
05:24from hundreds, if not thousands of kilometers away.
05:28Now we are working on the way that we can work on Sting on the other continent,
05:32not only from other countries.
05:35And we also need to consider that technologies change not only our,
05:39but the counteractivity to any other technology is also active.
05:46Interceptors can now be launched from the air and from mothership drones.
05:51One manufacturer, Skyfall, has released an interceptor that uses AI
05:54to autonomously lock onto and destroy a target.
05:59The aim is simple, to take down as many Russian drones as possible,
06:03keep pilots safe, and of course, protect the people on the ground,
06:07living in the shadow of these daily attacks.
06:19The night after our visit to Wild Hornets, more than 20 people were killed in attacks on Kyiv.
06:27This block of apartments was hit by a cruise missile.
06:46And in the southeastern city of Dnipro, only two days later,
06:50we saw what happened when missile fragments hit populated areas.
06:54—
06:54—
06:54—
06:54—
06:54—
07:30Miraculously, no one died in this attack.
07:33About 20 people were injured, including Olha's neighbour.
07:38Restless innovation has been the only way for Ukraine to try to stay ahead of Russia.
07:44Since 2022, Ukraine has rapidly transformed from a country reliant on weapons imports
07:49to a military tech powerhouse in its own right.
07:54Kyiv still needs outside support, but as we saw, the outside world is increasingly coming
08:00to Ukraine for inspiration.
08:04In recent years, drones have stolen the show, but at another secret location we saw how some
08:10of the most advanced remote-controlled systems have their feet firmly on the ground.
08:16These are uncrewed ground vehicles, or UGVs, fast becoming an essential player inside the
08:22kill zone.
08:24That's the name given to the 25 kilometres on either side of the front line where exploding
08:29drones hunt at will.
08:32This one is the Rattel M, a four-wheeler with a range of 75 kilometres.
08:40So these are Rattel ground robots, they can produce hundreds of these a month for as little
08:46as tens of thousands of dollars each unit.
08:49And these are making such a difference on the battlefield, because the fact is, these
08:52can replace human beings in the kill zone.
08:56They can deploy FPV drones and also evacuate wounded soldiers if need be.
09:19The medium size Rattel M is for logistics.
09:24In these robots you could see our prototype of net shooting system to protect our UGV from
09:32the previous fiber optics.
09:36We use stereo cameras, we use our own neural network and net shooting systems.
09:42The biggest one...
09:43And this is the larger Rattel H, capable of delivering a load of around 600 kilograms, including launchers
09:49for FPV drones.
10:04Robots made in this factory can also be packed with explosives for one-way attack missions
10:09or lay mines.
10:11In 2023 we had a lot of problems with remote mining, because all mining was done by humans.
10:18That's why we decided to install this stuff to drop into two anti-tank mines.
10:25This is a video of the mine-laying robot on a training exercise.
10:31And this is a combat mission carried out by an exploding UGV against a Russian-held bridge.
10:38We haven't enough humans in Ukraine like Russia.
10:42And UGV could change our humans in the front line.
10:46And it's very good when we change and save our soldiers in logistics missions.
10:50So it's the most important to save our lives, soldiers' lives.
10:55For Ukraine, those lives are precious.
10:59The International Institute for Strategic Studies estimates Russia has over 1.2 million active
11:04military personnel, with Ukraine nearly 700,000.
11:12Ukraine's Ministry of Defense knows that robots are key to narrowing the gap.
11:16It contracted 25,000 UGVs in just the first half of 2026, and said 10,000 missions were carried
11:23out in April alone.
11:25Before the full-scale invasion, Taras managed a company that made street lamps.
11:30He now employs around 350 people.
11:34He says a vehicle produced in his factory for $27,000 would cost around $200,000 if produced
11:41by a NATO country.
11:44From here, new iterations are immediately battle-tested, with new ideas moving from design to front-line
11:50in a matter of weeks.
11:53The next step of robots will be AI solutions.
11:56And for now, we start testing our follow-me mode when a robot follows the soldiers.
12:00It will be robots and solutions only for infantry.
12:03We start testing in our training field and neural network AI to detect by using only stereo
12:09cameras.
12:10We detect drones in 100 meters around our robots.
12:13The truth is many of these robots will have a very short life expectancy when they reach
12:18the front lines.
12:19At least they can be easily replaced, unlike soldiers.
12:23We were also given a first look at Rattel's latest prototype, an amphibious ground robot
12:29designed for fighting on the contested islands of the Dnieper Delta south of Kherson.
12:35Both the interceptor drones and ground robots are critical to the numbers game.
12:40Ukraine has fewer soldiers than its enemy, so technology and machines are needed to fill
12:45the gap and preserve life.
12:48And our ultimate goal is to have 100% of all transportation on the last 10-20 kilometers
12:57should be done only by robots.
13:00Because we should not risk our soldiers.
13:03Robots are undoubtedly saving lives in the kill zone.
13:06But of course, destroying the enemy is also a priority for Ukraine's military.
13:11Ukraine's Ministry of Defense said in May that for months it had been killing and injuring
13:16more soldiers than Russia was able to recruit.
13:19A morbid ratio that Ukraine feels it needs to maintain for the sake of its own survival.
13:31It's places like this where Ukraine's killer drone pilots come to refine their skills.
13:37It's the Kill House Academy.
13:40Over 7,000 people have passed through its stores over the last two years.
13:45Soldiers, foreign volunteers, as well as civilians.
13:48First they learn the basics of controlling simple quadcopters like this.
13:55We've come to the Kill House Academy and there are drones flying all around us.
14:00Some are crashing as well.
14:01Students here are right at the end of a six-day basic drone flying course and they'll leave
14:07here with their certificate and many will take it straight to the front line where drones
14:11and drone flying skills are so desperately needed.
14:14That one just crashed.
14:19We're trying to give them much control so they can hover in front of targets.
14:26They can hover while their signal is breaking so they should just stop it and wait till the situation
14:34will be better.
14:35So we are teaching them to fly slowly because that means that you can fly much longer distance
14:44because your battery wouldn't discharge fast.
14:49And after that we are giving them harder obstacles to do to work with it.
14:57Students also need to know how to handle explosives and hit human-sized targets too.
15:11This test is just with a small charge but in the field FPV drones often have payloads of
15:16about one kilogram.
15:21Sante is a foreign volunteer fighter with Ukraine's army.
15:25He's been on the receiving end of drone attacks but is new to piloting.
15:31It's like driving a car you need to learn properly and you need to practice and practice
15:36and practice and practice.
15:37The unique experience I have with drones are running in front of them, taking some practice
15:42of them or hiding of them.
15:45For us the logistics today can't be executed without drones.
15:52While drones or flying once without drones you're done.
15:55putting people on the ground using to ignore you.
15:59That's giving Ukraine the upper hand to keep holding the ground in front of Russians.
16:06Drone pilots like those operating the Sting are also getting used to the idea of working
16:10far away from the combat zone.
16:34Drones are not just getting smarter, faster and deadlier, they're also getting bigger.
16:41We were taken to another secret location to see for ourselves.
16:53Now this beast is known as the Peron Max and at $25,000 a pop this is one of the
17:00biggest drones
17:01in the Ukrainian army at the moment.
17:02This is used for logistics supplies and bomber missions as well.
17:07Then we have a compass, a gimbal with a camera, a GPS at the same time, a battery, a Starlink,
17:19a system, a skid bank, a system, a skid bank, and a bomb.
17:32Starlink is emerging as the go-to technology for Ukraine's remotely controlled army, giving
17:38them a distinct advantage.
17:40Drones that rely on radio frequencies and GPS are vulnerable to electronic warfare.
17:45While fiber optic cables can break, especially at higher altitudes or when navigating obstacles.
17:52Operators using mini Starlink nodes can send commands, video feeds, and data via low-earth
17:58orbit satellites and an array of ground stations to the drone's dish.
18:03Most of the components that make up the drone are made in Ukraine.
18:26This team is simulating a mission to locate, identify, and attack a target using the heavy bomber.
18:33The smaller Perrin Mini is largely used for reconnaissance.
18:43The large Perrin X is mainly used as a bomber, but is increasingly needed for logistics,
18:49helping to resupply soldiers inside the kill zone.
18:54The water, medicine, things.
18:56If they don't want, the boys can't be in these positions.
19:01But once again, they go to 20 km to the position.
19:08It's more effective than the NRK, because it's faster than the NRK.
19:13It's faster than the most.
19:16It's faster than the most.
19:18It's faster than the most.
19:20It's faster than the most.
19:21The Perrin X can travel 15 km and drop three 15 kg warheads on targets before returning to base.
19:29Once in the air, the crew operates the drone's array of high-tech features.
19:34First is detecting what's known as spoofing, an attempt by the enemy to confuse the drone with fake satellite navigation
19:41signals, throwing it off target.
19:44If spoofing or jamming is detected, these drones can switch to optical navigation, using onboard cameras to read the landscape
19:52and fly autonomously.
19:54Also to come, AI-controlled bomber swarms, with up to 50 bombers in the air surveying the landscape and identifying
20:02targets.
20:04We are going to see the goal.
20:07We are going to see the goal.
20:10And the same tools will help us to choose the best route,
20:15to choose the best bombers that are far away, to see the goal.
20:23In this cat-and-mouse arms race, it's a case of innovate or die.
20:27Often within weeks of one side deploying a new technology or upgrade, the other side plays its counter-move, and
20:33so on.
20:36This video shows a recent mission in which the crew discovered an unexploded warhead from a Russian Shahed drone.
20:43They attached it to a bomber drone, flew it back towards the enemy, and dropped it on their position.
21:10Many of Ukraine's tech companies sell directly to military units, via a government-backed platform called Brave One.
21:19As well as hardware, they say they currently have 200 companies developing AI solutions,
21:24to help with things like optical navigation and target recognition for drones and missiles.
21:29The effectiveness, preciseness, terminal guidance.
21:33This is the areas where AI is the best.
21:36The systems where a lot of data should be processed,
21:40and the decisions based on the big data should be taken.
21:44Visual analysis, computer vision, machine vision, acoustic signature detection, radio detection.
21:57Ukraine's war machine is also innovating at sea.
22:01Since the start of the full-scale invasion,
22:03Ukraine has managed to push much of Russia's Black Sea fleet away from the Crimean peninsula,
22:08through a combination of missile, long-range drone, and sea drone strikes.
22:13We were given rare access to a special forces unit within Ukraine's intelligence services,
22:19known as the Black Sea Legion.
22:21It's designing weapons to take the fight further out to sea and into Russian territory.
22:26And all this was turned into one small garage-like cooperative
22:33in a huge infrastructure for creating a whole robotized system,
22:41which allows us to control not only one drone drone,
22:44but with huge groups of escadrille,
22:48which allows us to attack the whole fleet of Russia.
23:02This is a simulation of a remotely controlled naval drone,
23:05and this is the real thing.
23:09The Katran X 1.2,
23:11not only capable of operating as an exploding drone against Russian Navy ships,
23:17but also features hatches for you-know-what, interceptor drones.
23:25Now I control X 1.2,
23:29that's a naval drone with 23 rocket drones for attack on dash ahead.
23:38Max speed like 100 km per hour.
23:44Back in the central control room on the screen,
23:47a target long seen as the holy grail for Ukraine's deep strikes,
23:51the Kirsch bridge linking Russia to occupied Crimea.
23:56Ninth says his unit is ready to attack and is just waiting for the sign.
24:02And their latest trick, deploying their uncrewed boats to stop,
24:06threaten and divert ships in the Black Sea that they suspect of illegally transporting Ukrainian goods for export.
24:13With this system, for a half a second, we can destroy the ship.
24:20With these drones, we can hold the hull,
24:23and hold the prisoners of arrested,
24:27and hold the prisoners of arrested.
24:30With separate drones, we can cover air space,
24:33and create a rap-pare-pare-pare-pare-pare-pare-pare-pare-pare-pare-pare.
24:41You've got to be more thankful.
24:43Because, let me tell you, you don't have the cards.
24:46With us, you have the cards.
24:48But without us, you don't have any cards.
24:51One thing we can say is that when President Trump says
24:54that there is no cards in Ukraine,
24:57he's wrong.
24:58By the way, we can bring them cards.
25:06When needs must, Ukraine still uses more old-school methods
25:10to take down enemy drones.
25:12A few hours before we visited this mobile air-defense unit,
25:15it was targeting a Shahed with a Browning machine gun.
25:20But in a war that never stands still,
25:22even here the unit is training up on the very latest interceptors.
25:30This is the Wall of Remembrance for the Fallen of Ukraine,
25:33close to Kyiv's central St Michael's Square.
25:37And these are the faces of just some of the victims of a war that began in 2014.
25:49Here in Kyiv, we can see the relics of Russia's failed so-called special military operation of February 2022
25:55to take the capital and the rest of the country.
25:58But since we've been in Ukraine, we've been given incredible access
26:01to the next generation of technical innovation that's changing the course of this war.
26:10Compared with today's innovations, these tanks look like they belong in another time altogether.
26:16With everything to lose, Ukraine knows it needs to win the tech arms race
26:20and continue fighting tomorrow's war today.
26:25We will continue fighting tomorrow's war today.
26:43That's just a big battle.
26:43but, now, theICAidation system,
26:44the
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