Now more deadly than any other weapon, drones have changed the face of the fighting between Kyiv and Moscow. Pending a solution to the conflict, Ukraine is focusing on training and recruiting the people who make the best pilots: gamers.
All you could see were their black or khaki caps, five heads bent in a semicircle, 10 eyes glued to a console. If it weren’t for the fatigues, you’d think it was a gaming convention. But big insects were buzzing in the air, and the 92nd Assault Brigade was actually training in drone warfare in a snow-covered field near Kharkiv, northeastern Ukraine. “Of course we all play video games,” smiled commanding officer Nikola, his cheeks reddened by the cold under a The North Face beanie. “Those who have had practice are definitely more proficient in piloting the drones.”
“The face of war has changed. We are the ‘new wave,’” said one of the supervisors of a drone manufacturing workshop hidden in the basement of an old Soviet building in Kharkiv. “The infantrymen of the trenches can do nothing nowadays without the new strategic battalions which, since 2023, have upended combat,” he continued under a poster of a scantily clad woman wearing biker boots, a bra, and holding a Kalashnikov. Drones are now responsible for 70% of deaths among combatants, both Russian and Ukrainian, and their use has made the third year of the war deadlier than the first two combined.
I play mostly strategy games, but I doubt they will hire me as general…
There doesn’t need to be any difference. Make fighting in the drone army into a videogame. People will pay good money to be soldiers.
Maybe we can find some kid who’s really good at it, and doesn’t even know it’s real!
I keep getting reminded how prophetic Robin Williams’ Toys (1992) was lately
With the hours I’ve spent flying my drone in Ghost Recon : Wildlands, I’m 0% surprised at the games skills IRL, nor their effectiveness on the battlefield. I’m just mighty curious at how easily spotted they are compared to the video game ones.
Only slightly related, but it’s hilarious to hear my surgeon wife being told to start practising her gamepad handling skills on video games so she can better operate using the robot. Well, sweetheart, let me show you what more than thirty years of practice look like! :,D
Just wait till the rocket league players start flying em. Gunna be musty-ing a grenade before going for the drone strike
Why tf is this drone dodge rolling so damn much!?
do a barrel roll!
Also gamers make the best draft dodgers. Gaming totally did help with not leaving my appartment for a year.
That is probably true, but doesn’t mean much when gaming is such a mainstream activity.
It doesn’t mean much that millions of people might be good at operating remote controlled killing machines?
