What’s at stake:
The rules of modern warfare are always under review, and Ukraine is proving that innovation can outmatch raw firepower. As the line between commercial and military technology blurs, the implications extend far beyond the battlefield. It impacts national security, tech investment, and global power dynamics.
Across the long arc of human conflict, those who can quickly and creatively adapt can win. It’s not always the bigger army or the better-funded side. Often, it’s the one that better understands the battlefield’s evolution and can figure out how to turn innovation into asymmetric advantage. So let’s recognize and applaud Ukraine’s military for its resilience, and especially for its ingenuity. Specifically, for its stunning surgical success in destroying many high-value Russian warplanes that the Russians had been using to commit war crimes by bombing civilian targets, using off-the-shelf technologies and tactical cunning.
Ukraine’s recent string of drone strikes against air bases deep inside Russian territory represent more than just battlefield success. It’s a masterclass in 21st-Century asymmetric warfare. This was an object lesson for tech executives, military strategists, investors, and engineers alike.
Throughout history, warfare has always evolved hand-in-hand with technology. When gunpowder supplanted bows and arrows, it didn’t just change the tools of war, it rewrote military doctrine. When wooden ships gave way to steel navies and aircraft carriers supplanted battleships, entire command structures adapted. When aircraft took to the skies in WWI and later became precision-strike platforms in the Gulf War, our understanding of battlefield reach, speed, and lethality changed forever.
But alongside those technological leaps, cunning has always played a pivotal role. In Homer’s myth, the Greeks used deception — a giant wooden horse — to breach Troy’s fortified walls. The British during WWII did more than invent radar; they pioneered the integration of signals, human intelligence, and command infrastructure into a unified air defense network. Mossad didn’t just track terrorists; they rewired Hezbollah’s own communications equipment to turn pagers into payloads.
And now we see Ukraine, faced with an existential threat from a larger, better-equipped aggressor, leveraging similar ingenuity. Instead of pursuing parity with Russia’s air force, which they recognized as an impossible and prohibitively expensive goal, Ukraine has turned the tables. Using small, relatively inexpensive drones and modified commercial tech, they’ve destroyed billion-dollar warplanes parked hundreds of miles from the front lines. Reports suggest Ukraine’s planning took 18 months and exploited lapses in Russian base security, long-range drone navigation, and even homegrown AI-assisted flight paths to sneak past defenses.
Ukraine’s success isn’t just remarkable military strategy. It is a wake-up call for those who build, fund, and secure technology. The tools now disrupting air superiority aren’t multi-hundred-million-dollar advanced fighter jets or stealth bombers; they’re the fruits of the commercial tech ecosystem: high-res cameras, lithium batteries, real-time software coordination, 3D-printed components, and AI-guided flight control. Once the exclusive domain of sovereign military R&D budgets, war is now being reshaped by garage-based tinkering, open-source innovation, and software-defined warfare.
The implications are vast. And scary.
Read more: What’s Cooking at TechSplicit (and at my house): Rewriting the Rules of War with Tech, Tactics, and TenacityFor defense tech investors, this is validation of a trend: the line between commercial and military tech is blurring fast — if it even still exists. For cybersecurity professionals, Ukraine’s drone raids underscore the critical importance of secure communications, infrastructure redundancy, and operational unpredictability. For engineers designing autonomous systems, this is a unique proving ground where GPS denial, signal jamming, and ruggedized software aren’t edge cases; they’re table stakes.
Creativity can be the ultimate force multiplier, especially when resources are limited. And when traditional powers become complacent, agile upstarts find ways to fly under their radar—sometimes literally.
Perhaps the most important lesson is that innovation doesn’t need a trillion-dollar defense budget. It needs motivation, creativity, and a willingness to see around corners. Ukraine has had to innovate or die. And in doing so, it’s showing the world that clever applications of relatively simple tech can stun and possibly dismantle even the most fearsome war machines.
That’s an important lesson for every enterprise: whether you’re building next-gen chips, advancing edge-AI, or designing autonomous vehicles. Creativity can be the ultimate force multiplier, especially when resources are limited. And when traditional powers become complacent, agile upstarts find ways to fly under their radar — sometimes literally.
We don’t yet know how this war will end. But we do know this: Ukraine has earned a place in the pantheon of innovators who have changed the rules of warfare. Like the Greeks at Troy, the British during the Blitz, and the Israelis with their cyber-physical ingenuity, the Ukrainians are showing what it means to outthink your opponent, one drone at a time.
And in doing so, they’re reminding all of us: in war, as in tech, the future belongs not just to the strong, but to the smart.
Bottom line:
Ukraine’s use of low-cost drones to destroy high-value Russian warplanes showcases how ingenuity and accessible tech can disrupt traditional military dominance. It’s a pivotal moment that highlights the strategic value of software-defined systems, autonomous capabilities, and integrated intelligence. For defense planners, investors, and engineers, this is a wake-up call: legacy systems alone don’t guarantee advantage. On the battlefield today, adaptability, creativity, and rapid iteration may be the most powerful weapons of all.
What’s Cooking at my house:
Mujadara (Lentils and Rice with Fried Onions) by Naz Deravian, NYTimes
Boy, was I wrong! Several weeks ago my pseudo-vegetarian (don’t ask!) daughter-in-law sent me a recipe from the NY Times for Mujadara, which was described as a “comforting, nourishing, and budget-friendly” “humble lentil and rice dish beloved across Levantine cuisines.” Nothing against Levantine cuisines, but much as I love salt and cumin this recipe seemed pretty dull and uninteresting to me. Still, I’m always open to requests and new recipes, so I made it. And it was, as described, delicious!
Now, to be clear, budget-friendly doesn’t mean time-budget friendly, at least as written, although I will offer a suggestion that will save a lot of time in both prep and in clean up. Store-bought french-fried onions. Big time saver: heating the oil to 350 degrees and maintaining that temperature was a big challenge. Then, frying the onions to a crispy golden brown, even in batches, took much more than 2 minutes. Finally, the store-bought fried onions saved cleaning up and disposing of the frying oil. French-fried onions at my local grocer costs less than $5 and the vegetable oil I tossed was probably almost that expensive. Add in time and labor and the purchased onions are a no-brainer.
Back to the Mujadara: Tasty, filling, and delicious. I’m sure I’ll be making this again!
Enjoy!
Servings: 6 Time: 45 minutes (estimated, using store-bought fried onions)
Ingredients:
- 1 cup green, brown, black or Puy lentils, picked through and rinsed
- Kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal)
- 1½ teaspoons ground cumin
- ½ cup olive oil
- 2 large yellow onions, finely chopped
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 cup white basmati rice, rinsed until the water runs clear and drained (see Tip)
- 6 oz. French-fried onions OR
- Vegetable oil, for frying — Unnecessary if you’re using store-bought fried onions)
- 1 large yellow onion, halved and thinly sliced — Unnecessary if you’re using store-bought fried onions)
Preparation:
- Place the lentils, 1 teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon cumin and 4 cups of water in a medium saucepan, partially cover and bring to a boil over high. Reduce to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until the lentils are partially cooked (al dente), about 15 minutes, depending on the type of lentil. (Check often so the lentils don’t overcook.) Remove the pot from the heat, uncover and set aside.
- While the lentils cook, in a large (12-inch) pan with a lid, heat the olive oil over medium-high. Stir in the chopped onions, then cook without stirring (to help encourage browning) until the onions start to turn golden at the edges, 10 to 12 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium if necessary and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are a rich golden brown, 25 to 30 minutes more. Season the onions with a little salt.
- Stir the rice, 1½ teaspoons salt, remaining 1 teaspoon cumin and the black pepper into the cooked onions. Stir in the lentils and their cooking liquid and bring to a boil. Carefully taste the cooking liquid and adjust seasoning as needed; it should be pleasantly seasoned. Cover, reduce to low and cook until the liquid has been absorbed and the lentils and rice are fully cooked, about 18 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow to steam, covered, for 10 minutes.
- If you are making your own fried onions, don’t say I didn’t warn you! While the mujadara cooks, line a large plate or sheet pan with paper towels and set aside. In a medium pot, add enough oil to reach 1 inch high (about 3 cups) and heat over medium-high until the temperature reaches 350 degrees. While the oil heats, separate the onion slices by hand so they’re not clumped, and trim off any larger pieces so each slice has about the same thickness. Working in 2 to 3 batches, carefully add the onion to the hot oil. Fry, stirring with a slotted spoon, until golden brown, about 2 minutes. Adjust the heat as needed to maintain the temperature. Remove with the slotted spoon and transfer to the paper towel-lined plate; repeat as needed to cook remaining onion.
- Serve mujadara warm or at room temperature, topped with the fried onions (if using).
Tip: Basmati rice is a long-grain variety, but occasionally American basmati has shorter grains. When in doubt, look for imported basmati to ensure the mujadara has the right texture.
Enjoy!
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Mike Markowitz is Editor-at-Large at TechSplicit. He can be reached at mike.markowitz@techsplicit.com.
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