AFRL commander says attacks ‘demonstrate a drone warfare future’

The lessons are not lost on Air Force and Space Force leaders, Brig Gen. Jason Bartolomei said Monday during a Beavercreek press conference.

Bartolomei is commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, the Air Force’s principal science and technology research and development arm.

“There’s no question that warfare has changed with the drone capabilities that we’re seeing, and I think Ohio’s emphasis and investment, in terms of the companies that are coming forward in this domain, is well-positioned for the future,” the AFRL commander said.

“As those details come in, we’ll hear more about those things, but I think one thing is for sure, at the Research Laboratory, we are very focused on winning the future — and that future will be a drone warfare future," the one-star general added.

Credit: Bryant Billing

Credit: Bryant Billing

Around 40 Russian military planes, most of them strategic bombers, were reportedly hit in the attack, Axios reported. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said 34% of Russia’s strategic bombers were hit.

A Ukrainian official also said the planes that were attacked were used by the Russian military against Ukrainian cities, Axios reported.

Military planners have praised Ukraine’s approach in producing and deploying a wide variety of drones ever since the Russian invasion of the country in February 2022. Both sides have used drones to devastating effect.

“What is happening is that an FPV (first-person view) drone has become a universal platform,” Kateryna Bondar, a fellow with the Wadhwani AI Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said recently. “So, as we can see here, we take an FPV drone as a base, and dependent on which equipment we attach to this drone, it can become a bomber.”

AFRL is one of the key players at the Springfield-Beckley Municipal Airport’s National Advanced Air Mobility Center of Excellence, where drones and other types of advanced aircraft are studied.

Bartolomei spoke Monday after he and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed renewed memorandum of understanding documents at the Pentagon Tower Club, agreeing on a continued partnership between AFRL and state government.