As a Russian soldier slips out from the tree line, a Ukrainian reconnaissance drone detects movement, zooms in, and an enemy vehicle appears on the operator’s screen.

Heorhii Volkov, commander of Yasni Ochi (Clear Eyes), a drone unit with 13 Khartiia Brigade, orders a strike. A drone, equipped with AI targeting, launches about 20km (12 miles) from the target, and a red marker bounces on the screen as it closes in.

The link is spotty, but the target lock is not. The system zeros in on the vehicle, and the strike drone dives. Follow-on drones then confirm the hit and clear the area.

That sequence: detection, AI identification, long-range strike, and follow-up, captures the way some units now fight as the war’s relentless race for better technology rages on.

“Right now we mostly work alon

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