Military Snipers Being Replaced by Drones

The man who once took what Ukraine touts as the longest successful sniper shot in history now spends his days loading explosives onto drones. The Wall Street Journal frames the story of 60-year-old Vyacheslav Kovalskiy as one that shows how drones are changing modern warfare and threatening to make some traditional roles obsolete. Back in 2023, the Ukrainian special forces sniper reportedly killed a Russian officer from nearly 2.5 miles away. Flash forward to the present, and Kovalskiy hasn't taken a shot in about a year and a half as explosives-laden drones take over his duties.

"Drones are just more effective and cost less," says Kovalskiy. "I used to be the sniper and everyone was dancing around me. Now the drone pilot, everyone dances around him, including me." The story runs through the heavy logistics of getting a sniper and his equipment in place, versus the relative ease of having a drone pilot unleash his weapon from a bunker. Drones also pose a physical threat to snipers—they can zero in on human targets via their body heat and thermal imaging. Read the full story, which notes that the Pentagon still sees snipers as playing a "critical, unjammable" role in warfare. Even so, veterans like Kovalskiy suspect their era is fading—though he doesn't miss one part of the job: pulling the trigger on a human being.