1 DRONES, OR unmanned aerial vehicles, may seem like recent technology, but the earliest iteration took flight in 1849, during the First Italian War of Independence. An Austrian artillery lieutenant, Franz Von Uchatius, used pilotless balloons packed with explosives to attack Venice. The attack was mostly unsuccessful; some balloons even blew back to Austria.
2 ABRAHAM Karem (the ‘Dronefather’), a Baghdad-born, Israeli-raised engineer, built the first modern drone for reconnaissance during the Yom Kippur War, in the early 1970s. After immigrating to the United States, Karem went on to design the MQ-1 Predator drone, which fired its first combat missile over Afghanistan in October 2001, transforming the strategy and tactics of military combat.
Today, drones play a pivotal role in the Russia-Ukraine war. In addition to being used for reconnaissance, combat drones have struck both Moscow and Kyiv. Drones have also been used to drop food and medical supplies to Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine.
3 MILITARY drones resemble small airplanes and can cost more than US$15 million, but mini versions (sometimes called ‘quadcopters’) look more like small helicopters; they are widely available for as little as $40 [₹3,300]. Most are remotely operated via either a controller or a smartphone app, but some models can fly autonomously thanks to GPS, sensors, software and cameras that help them avoid obstacles.
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