Ukraine has always had a solid software developer community. This CNN piece presented by Erin Burnett from Ukraine highlights the power of such a community even against one of the largest land armies in the world.

There are some interesting lessons for us.

https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2022/05/13/ukrainian-drones-combat-russian-forces-burnett-dnt-ebof-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/russia-ukraine-military-conflict/

• local developer community are operating home size drones
• drone operators are gamers operating from many kilometres away
• drones are Chinese and Russians have special access to take off and landing information. Ukrainians overcame this challenge using technical approach and one near miss.
• the people in this piece show a map they created with their drones and have circled Russian emplacements for attack.
• there his a thrill and black humour experienced and best understood by watching the video.
• gamer drones pass information off to Ukranian army drones which can circle for over 2 hours and direct Ukranian artillery with great accuracy
  

Some lessons I take away here are:

1. Large impact achieved by clear line of sight on the required result
2. Worries about which country produced technical components and back doors are best addressed locally and using technical means. This is not for the State Department or sanctions.
3. Youth knowledge and capability is underestimated and not well addressed in educational or certification ways that we are accustomed to evaluating people.
   

Enjoy.