The development of drone warfare is underway rapidly. What began as basic reconnaissance missions from great distances is now far more sophisticated. Now, drones are not merely reconning or striking ground targets—they are battling one another in the air. Recent success by the U.S. Army in recording its first air-to-air kill with an armed first-person-view (FPV) drone is a tipping point. It is the dawn of a new era when unmanned drones engage in air warfare that previously was the domain of science fiction.
It was accomplished in tests at Fort Rucker, Alabama, when troops of the 173rd Airborne Brigade, assisted by the Pennsylvania National Guard and Army engineers, extended drone warfare to unprecedented realms. Mating an M18 Claymore mine—a historical infantry anti-personnel weapon—to the SkyRaider quadcopter airframe, engineers deployed the weapon over the military base. Controlled by an operator, the drone flew near a target in the air and exploded the mine at close range, destroying the enemy drone. With even temporary loss of communications, the system reacquired contact, with potential future reuse.
The specifics of the weapon enhance the drama of the accomplishment. The Claymore, created in the 1950s, spews hundreds of steel ball bearings in a deadly cone-shaped burst out over two football fields. With it mounted on an agile FPV drone, it converts a fairly affordable platform into a serious air-to-air interceptor. The SkyRaider’s modular, open design makes it easy to customize, combining commercial-grade agility with military-grade firepower. That marriage is precisely why drone-on-drone warfare is so remarkably significant—it’s low-cost, adaptable, and extremely disruptive.
Cost is one more reason it’s important. Little drones are cheap and easy to mass-deploy hundreds of, but ordinary anti-air systems cost more and would be an overreaction against targets so small. With FPV drones carrying handheld munitions, soldiers can counterattack hostile drones at much lower expense than by firing a missile or employing bigger interceptors. The Army’s idea for a “backpackable” interceptor—a system light enough to carry on patrol—accounts for such economies.
The transition is not a hypothetical one. On the battlefields of today, drone-to-drone warfare already is routine. In Ukraine and other places, quadcopters are fighting in mid-air as a matter of routine, colliding with each other now and then, employing jury-rigged ordinance at others.
Operators are skilled at improvisation, adding rear-facing cameras, fitting in countermeasures, and even testing out primitive collision avoidance. The Army has paid attention, copying from actual wars to inform its own work, from mounted rapid drone repair using 3D printing to switch-out weapon attachments.
Training has been out front on this revolution. Troops such as 1st Lt. Francesco La Torre of the 173rd Airborne Brigade practiced for weeks in FPV flying, in difficult weather conditions, and engaging moving airborne targets.
La Torre called it “Star Wars”-like dogfights but underscored that the true value lies in finding practical tactical solutions to new equipment. He saw it enable junior officers to have this kind of innovation in their own hands. The Army’s new mission is to deploy drones and counter-drone technology to as large a number of units as possible, and provide quick training so troops can improvise on the spot.
The larger context matters. The enemies of the world are testing out fleets of cheap, small, disposable drones that are making conventional air defenses irrelevant. Some autonomous systems have been shown to stalk and attack with no human hand, raising ethical and strategic issues once the subject of science fiction. The threat of “killer robots” is no longer a subject for debate—it’s moving to the center of military thinking.
The future step remains unclear. Armed FPV drones will either become standard issue for troops in small units or will be specialized and used in conjunction with larger unmanned platforms. Either, however, represents a basic shift in how wars will be waged.
For the first time, the air above the battlefield is filled not just with manned aircraft, but with aircraft designed to outrun and outfight one another. The age of aerial dogfighting for the drones has arrived, and it is already reshaping the future of war.