While drones get the headlines, operators on the front lines in Ukraine identified Starlink as the most critical technology. This reveals that the foundational layer for future conflict is resilient, decentralized communication, which enables all other advanced systems to function in contested environments.

Warfare has evolved to a "sixth domain" where cyber becomes physical. Mass drone swarms act like a distributed software attack, requiring one-to-many defense systems analogous to antivirus software, rather than traditional one-missile-per-target defenses which cannot scale.

The universal jamming of GPS in conflict zones like Ukraine has rendered modern, GPS-reliant drones ineffective. This has reset the baseline level of drone autonomy to what it was two decades ago, creating an urgent need for alternative navigation systems that can operate without satellite signals.

Wargaming suggests that instead of flying alongside manned aircraft, unmanned systems are most effective when decoupled. Their best roles are as long-endurance decoys to confuse incoming missiles or as autonomous swarms in a designated kill zone.

Tenet Industries' CEO asserts that "last mile" targeting for drones is a solved problem from the 1960s. The real innovation and demand lie in enabling drones to navigate autonomously for 20+ kilometers in GPS-jammed environments, a much harder and more critical problem to solve.

Theseus's vision-based navigation is only accurate to 30 meters, a deliberate choice. This is sufficient for long-range transport ('getting from A to B') without enabling precision targeting. This strategy prioritizes reliability in GPS-denied areas while navigating regulatory and ethical concerns.

As drone hardware becomes commoditized, the key strategic value is shifting to software. Companies creating hardware-agnostic 'middleware' platforms to orchestrate diverse drone fleets, manage data, and enable swarming are becoming more critical than the drone manufacturers themselves.

The intense signal jamming by Russia in Ukraine makes remotely piloted drones ineffective in the final phase of an attack. This has created a tactical necessity for drones that can autonomously complete their mission after losing their data link, accelerating the development of practical, on-board AI for target engagement.

Ukraine is pioneering 'last mile autonomy' not as a strategic push for automation, but as a tactical necessity. When Russia jams the data link to a drone, the system can autonomously complete the final leg of its attack on a pre-identified target, countering electronic warfare.