Future Timeline

Russia is installing 4G modems and Ukrainian SIM cards in explosives-laden Shahed drones, potentially allowing them to piggyback on civilian cellular networks—and possibly making them smarter and more dangerous.

But if the cellular kluge works, there’s no reason Ukraine couldn’t copy it. And a drone that plugs into civilian 4G is more dangerous to Russia than it is to Ukraine.
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By contrast, Ukraine’s own deep-strike weapons tend to travel no farther than Moscow, 350 miles from the Ukrainian border. A 400-pound, propeller-drive drone—which Ukraine clearly has the ability to produce—can fly for 24 hours straight with an explosive payload equivalent to an artillery shell, allowing it to range potentially thousands of miles.

At extreme range, guidance and data-sharing might become a challenge. But not if the drone is riding on a cellular network. Smuggle in enough Russian SIM cards, and Ukraine could produce its own exploding cellular drones, and vastly extend its strikes across Russia.

DARPA’s Air Combat Evolution (ACE) program had the first-ever in-air tests of AI algorithms autonomously flying a fighter jet against a human-piloted fighter jet in within-visual-range combat scenarios (aka dogfighting). The General Dynamics X-62 VISTA (“Variable Stability In-flight Simulator Test Aircraft”) is an experimental aircraft, derived from the F-16D Fighting Falcon, which was modified as a joint venture between General Dynamics and Calspan for use by the United States Air Force (USAF

Team members discussed what makes the ACE program unlike other aerospace autonomy projects and how it represents a transformational moment in aerospace history, establishing a foundation for ethical, trusted, human-machine teaming for complex military and civilian applications.