The new drones and solutions are shaping the next trends in the military.

"Ukraine Tests World's First Purpose-Built Robot Aircraft Carrier for Drones" (Kyiv Post, Ukraine Tests World's First Purpose-Built Robot Aircraft Carrier for Drones)

The next trend in the military is networking. All actors share information about their ammunition capacity. Recognized vehicles. Enemies and their movements. Knowledge of the enemy is a key element. 

The new systems are integrated as part of the whole. Entire battle units and their support systems form a network that shares information immediately. The winner is not the fastest. It's the sharpest. It's the thing that can detect, follow, and shoot the enemy with the highest possible accuracy. The only accepted accuracy is destroying the enemy. This is the element. 

In tactical-scale work. The strategic scale is more complicated than just battlefield operations. 

The strategic scale means the entire system. Its ability to replace losses settles the war. Settling the war is not the same as winning battles. It’s a little bit the same. But if the actor uses all its anti-tank ammunition in one battle. That can mean a loss in the next battle. All ammunition is a single-use tool. That means resupply is the most important thing in the war. The new drones can carry other drones. 

Sea- and land-based solutions. They carry anti-drone, killer drones, and observation drones. Surface and underwater systems can release other drones. That can affect inland objects. They can also use their anti-drone systems as traps. That can affect things. Like aircraft and helicopters. And other ships and tanks. The USVs (unmanned surface vehicles).And UUVs (Unmanned Underwater vehicles). And UGVs (Unmanned Ground Vehicles). They can carry small, lightweight anti-aircraft missiles. Stinger-type missiles can cause damage to large aircraft.

"A photograph of Typhoon uncrewed surface vessel equipped with an Airstrike Pack. Image: Splash Industries" (The Defensepost, Typhoon USV Gains Ability to Launch One-Way Drones With a Single Button)

And if. The system carries an internal warhead. That can improve its ability to cause damage. The large-sized robot can carry other robots.  This means the UUV or USV can be dropped from an airplane.  Or some unmanned sea vehicle can carry a UGV to the operational area. This makes those systems very hard to predict. A drone is completely different from a manned vehicle. 

The AVs. (Autonomous Vehicles) like AUVs (Autonomous Underwater Vehicles) are replacing remote-controlled vehicles. Those AI-powered systems can operate independently without a remote pilot. This makes them immune to jammers. 

The drone must not care. About. Its crew. And the only problem is its communication. When. We think about small-sized FPV drones. Bigger drones like the MQ-9 Reaper and its successors. They can transport those drones. And. They can act as relay stations. This means that the small FPV drone can also be controlled from another side of the world. That gives small drones new capabilities. Larger drones. They can carry those small drones to operational areas. The fact is that. 

Things like Starlink systems. They can offer drones higher capacities. Than we ever imagined. The modem that uses jumping frequencies is hard to jam. But if jamming is successful. That makes those drones ineffective. Except. If they have AI-based systems. That can make them follow and hit the target even if the controller loses connection. 

When we think about manned submarines, their limit is food. Another thing. That limits their operations. It is psychological effects. Things like toilets can malfunction. And relationships in a closed environment can turn poisonous. This means the next thing that we can see at sea. It could be nuclear-powered drones. Full-scale nuclear submarine. It’s easy to transform into a drone. 

Small nuclear reactors. They can give small vehicles the ability to use things like lasers and microwave weapons. Nuclear power can solve problems with those drones' operational range. Nuclear batteries (RTGs) can give a small drone an unlimited operational capacity. But portable nuclear reactors can give the same ability. For. Larger-scale drones. The nuclear-powered tank Chrysler TV-8. It could be based on the new nuclear submarines. Those submarines can have caterpillar tracks. That allows them to operate. 

On the bottom of the sea. The miniature sub. It can look like the Soviet miniature submarine concept. That was designed for Spetsnaz. The submarine had those caterpillar tracks. That. It can travel along the seabed.

Miniature nuclear technology. That was created. For nuclear-powered cars like the Ford Nucleon and tanks like the Chrysler TV-8 in the 1960s. Those reactors' modernized versions. They can make it possible to create nuclear-powered flying vehicles, ground vehicles, corvettes, frigates, and missile boats. Or the nuclear-powered version of the Orca-class UUV.  Miniature reactors. They can turn many visions true. The ability to create systems with unlimited operational range is interesting. 

https://www.hisutton.com/Russian_Tracked_Submarines_Baltic_1980s.html

https://www.kyivpost.com/post/83090?

https://thedefensepost.com/2026/08/27/typhoon-one-way-drones/

https://www.twz.com/land/bradley-fighting-vehicle-lugging-load-of-swarming-ground-drones-is-a-sign-of-whats-to-come

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_underwater_vehicle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unmanned_aerial_vehicle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unmanned_surface_vehicle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unmanned_underwater_vehicle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysler_TV-8

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Nucleon

Swarm of drones is here and are we prepared?

Picture I

Kimmo Huosionmaa

Swarm of drones is in the key element if the world of battlefield and intelligence. Those small aerial and land-moving robots can cover very large areas, and they can be connected together with networks, what allows to connect the information, what the sensors of those vehicles send to the control center. Sometimes those small drones can carry the remote-controlled "toy cars", what can be dropped to the operational area, and those devices can look in the holes, and other places, where might be hiding people or equipment.

Some of those vehicles are equipped with small explosives like thermobaric, HEAT and thermite ammunition, what mission would be destroy enemy equipment. But there is more use for the swarm of the drones than use them as the hit weapon. The central computer can use the swarm of drones for protecting the bases against land and even the aerial attack.

Those small helicopters can have IR- and chemical sensors, and because drones are cheap, every drone might have different sensors.  The computer can use drones as the shield by moving the swarm of them to the route of attacking aircraft and helicopters when the jet motors and helicopters rotors would be suck drones thru them, and this causes damages for those vehicles.

The drones can equip with the ECM-systems, what will disturb radars, and also there could be small-sized weapons like automatic pistols and MAC-10-style-submachine guns for terminating the enemy, and this kind of devices can be very dangerous. Every person can install the winch in the drone, what would pull the trigger backward by using wire and then launch that gun.

Smallest size drones cannot carry the automatic guns would anyway also equip the derringer pistols or the outside of the drones would install rifle bullets, what are equipped with electric detonators. Those killer drones can have size about a couple of centimeters, and they can be extremely deadly, the idea of those weapons comes from the toys and the 338 caliber rifle bullet is always deadly.

Those systems can also be used in the intelligence role, and they can use the commercial routers and other devices for catching WIFI communication, and in the worst case, those drones can make "man-in middle-attack" and route the enemy communication thru it. That kind of systems can cause very big troubles if the enemy communication would be routed thru that equipment. And are we prepared for those threats?

Sometimes we must say, that those drone swarms can defend successfully by using ECM-systems, what denies the communication between drones and central computers. Those drone swarms can communicate together by using WLAN-technology, and that kind of systems are giving them the ability to share the computer power together. And that technology makes those drone-swarms more independent. In the most futuristic and terrifying visions system would equip with the ability to find the fuel for those helicopters independently.

The chemical sensors would find the hydrocarbons for the fuel cells and then drones can cut the canister open, and fill the tanks.  Drone swarms can also equip with "centers" what means drones with more powerful computer systems, and those systems can support the operations of the drones by flying with them, and the best way to defend against those systems would be EMP- or ECM weapon, what destroys the electronics and denies the communication between the individual drones.

I wait with fear when the first street gangs will attack against together by using drones. Those systems can also use for protecting the drug dealers by looking for the officials and this will cause terrible visions, how criminals can use them. They can look inside the houses, and looking for weapons and things, what they can steal. Drones can also be equipped with the microphones, and they can record every voice inside some house.

Picture I

https://assets.pcmag.com/media/images/494272-how-we-test-drones.jpg