MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
The technology of war is evolving fast, and drones are at the center of it. We've seen this in the ongoing U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. Unmanned drones are cheaper than missiles, easy to mass produce, can travel long distances and strike with precision. They were once the domain of major militaries, but they are now spreading rapidly, reshaping conflicts and also fueling criminal innovation in places like Latin America. To hear more about this, we've asked three NPR correspondents to find out how drone warfare is changing the balance of power in the regions they cover, from drug cartels in Mexico, the war in Sudan and where we start this morning, Ukraine. Here's NPR Ukraine correspondent Joanna Kakissis.
(SOUNDBITE OF HIGH-PITCHED BUZZING)
JOANNA KAKISSIS, BYLINE: You are hearing a Sting drone made by the Ukrainian company Wild Hornets and featured in this promotional video.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Sting, Shahed interceptor.
KAKISSIS: This small drone hunts and destroys Iranian designed Shahed drones, which Russia uses to attack Ukrainian cities nearly every night. Yurii Cherevashenko is deputy commander of Ukraine's air defense cover forces, and he sees interceptor drones in action.
YURII CHEREVASHENKO: (Through interpreter) When these drones go on combat duty, we see in real time what needs to be changed.
KAKISSIS: Hundreds of Ukrainian companies produce drones. Many are used in air operations. On the Black Sea, there are marine drones equipped with machine guns, and on land, Ukrainian forces use ground drones, which resemble small tractors and sound like this.
(SOUNDBITE OF DRONES BUZZING)
KAKISSIS: Ukraine's 93rd Brigade showed us their land drones in eastern Ukraine. NPR is using military call signs to identify the soldiers at the request of the Ukrainian military, which cites security concerns. Docent is the engineer in charge of the unit's ground drones.
What do these here usually carry?
DOCENT: Food, water, ammunition. But we can do some things like big bada boom.
KAKISSIS: Like carrying explosives into enemy positions.
KAKISSIS: The ground drones can also bring back wounded Ukrainian soldiers.
DOCENT: That's why they helps us very much, because sometime we can't get to remote places, but they can.
KAKISSIS: Drones are everywhere here, and they have redrawn the map of the front line and the war itself. This is NPR's Joanna Kakissis reporting from Ukraine.
(SOUNDBITE OF WATER SPRAYING)
EMMANUEL AKINWOTU, BYLINE: Firefighters tackled the blaze at the brutal scene of a drone attack at a market in central Sudan in late February. Local media filmed emergency responders searching through torched stores in el-Obeid city, where nine people were killed. This is the daily terror of drone strikes, haunting everyday life, and the new phase of the conflict across Sudan, especially in the central Kordofan region, now a key battleground between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
These strikes have become a major feature of the almost three-year conflict that has caused the world's largest humanitarian crisis. Both sides are fighting to control the strategic region that could turn the war in either's favor with the Sudanese army recording gains in recent months. But in the shifting front lines of Sudan's drone warfare, civilians are often the victims.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Non-English language spoken).
AKINWOTU: Last year, NPR reported from Atbara, a city in central Sudan that had become a safe haven during the war, until waves of RSF drone strikes hit displacement camps and public infrastructure.
(SOUNDBITE OF MACHINERY HUMMING)
AKINWOTU: At the Atbara power station, workers rushed to rebuild a transmission destroyed from drone strikes the day before. But just days after, it was hit again. Dr. Ladd Serwat is a senior Africa analyst at Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, an independent conflict monitoring group.
LADD SERWAT: During the early part of the war in Sudan, the Sudanese Armed Forces held aerial superiority through their use of jets, as well as through drones. However, over the course of the conflict, the warring Rapid Support Forces have also gained increased stock and increased their use of drones.
AKINWOTU: He said this year, there's been a surge in attacks.
SERWAT: In the early months of 2026, ACLED data has already recorded more drone strikes in Sudan than any previous quarter in the war so far.
AKINWOTU: And as both sides use drones to minimize casualties among their ranks, it's the civilians that are increasingly vulnerable.
Emmanuel Akinwotu, NPR News, Lagos.
EYDER PERALTA, BYLINE: In Mexico, drones became news in February, when airspace over El Paso and rural New Mexico was closed after U.S. authorities used an anti-drone laser across the border in the U.S. Bernalillo County district attorney Sam Bregman, who also chairs New Mexico's Organized Crime Commission, says, drones are a huge problem.
SAM BREGMAN: We are very concerned, extremely concerned, about the number of drones driven by cartels crossing the border on a daily basis.
PERALTA: He says the number of drones crossing the border into the U.S. has increased in the past year or so, and it's all kinds.
BREGMAN: Drones that are purchased in stores, they modify their capacity to carry payloads.
PERALTA: Some of them, says Bregman, drop off drugs. Others are used by human smugglers to monitor American law enforcement. Mexican authorities, on the other hand, say drones have been used by cartels since 2010 but not along the U.S. border. Instead, they are being used inside Mexico to move drugs and drop bombs.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Speaking Spanish).
PERALTA: On the outskirts of Juarez, just across the border from New Mexico, we asked around to see if anyone had seen drones flying around the border. Everyone says the same. The only drones they've ever seen are the ones Mexican police or military use to investigate murders. Teresa Renteria (ph) sells used clothes a stone's throw from where the airspace was closed, and she thinks this whole drone thing is a political ploy.
TERESA RENTERIA: (Speaking Spanish).
PERALTA: "It's the American government, she says, trying to start trouble here. They're trying to mess with us here in Mexico." President Trump, she says, has been threatening American military action, and cartel drones could prove the perfect excuse. I ask her if that doesn't scare her.
RENTERIA: (Speaking Spanish).
PERALTA: "We are scared," she says, "because we know that old man will betray us." Trump, she said, will do anything to take advantage.
Eyder Peralta, NPR News, Juarez.
MARTIN: Along with Eyder, we heard from NPR Africa correspondent Emmanuel Akinwotu and NPR Ukraine correspondent Joanna Kakissis.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
