The tech shaping today's wars — UAVs vs. counter-UAVs

Autonomy is the key to the effectiveness of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and counter-unmanned aerial systems (C-UAS) mobile missile systems says Kostiantyn Koval, the CEO and co-founder of Xora Technologies and former IT director of JSC Ukreximbank. According to Koval, the war has crossed a structural threshold over the past two years.

Koval wrote about this in his Novyny.LIVE column.

Why has autonomy as infrastructure become crucial?

Autonomy became crucial when it began to be perceived as infrastructure.

"When autonomy becomes infrastructure, the performance of individual platforms becomes less important. The focus shifts to failure modes, access control, life cycle, and the ability to adapt under pressure," says the expert.

Ukraine already operates within a multi-domain model

Koval notes that Ukraine is already operating within a multi-domain model. According to him, commercial satellites, civilian drones, military sensors, and software are used in real-world applications every day. What NATO has described for years as multi-domain operations has become routine in Ukraine under fire.

"The advantage comes from orchestrating different assets as an operating system that can withstand changes in hardware and configurations. With this approach in mind, we at Xora Technologies created FleetMS to manage missions and fleets in heterogeneous parks. The important principle here is that the infrastructure layer must survive hardware turbulence," he explained.

Countering drones with C-UAS systems

The co-founder of Xora Technologies says that the C-UAS drone countermeasure system is becoming an increasingly digital architecture. After all, sensor layers, signal correlation, and task distribution determine effectiveness as much as interceptors do.

"Open interfaces without risk management increase the attack surface. DevSecOps and change control are becoming part of combat capability, as are telemetry normalization and mission portability," he says.

The outcome hinges on data delays, classification quality, and agreed-upon rules of engagement. Uncoordinated cheap solutions fail, sensors without integration do not reveal their potential, and closed ecosystems concentrate failures at the supplier border.

Autonomy as infrastructure is important for defense tech in Europe

Koval believes that 2025 showed a structural shift.

"The key criterion is no longer what one system can do. It is determined by how entire systems think, coordinate, and evolve. Europe should pay as much attention to integration, testing, and operational processes as it does to hardware specifications. Those who build systems with a long life cycle will have an advantage," the expert added.

As a reminder, Daniel Novak, co-founder of Kuhaken and developer of passive UAV countermeasure systems, recently explained why 3D drone tracking is more important than detection.

There were also reports about how Russia, Iran, and Pakistan use proxy networks to circumvent sanctions and wage hybrid warfare.