A 17-Minute Documentary Is Sounding the Alarm on Drone Warfare — and What It Means for America

A short documentary filmed on the front lines of Ukraine is raising urgent questions about whether the United States military is ready for the next generation of warfare. The film's message has taken on new weight as American troops are now facing the very same drone threats overseas.

"Drone Hunters of Kherson" runs just 17 minutes, but the picture it paints is sobering. The film follows former Navy pilot Ken Harbaugh as he embeds with Ukrainian counter-drone units in the Kherson and Odessa regions — the first American to do so with the elite 11th "M. Hrushevskyi" Brigade, the 34th Coastal Defense Brigade, and the 30th Marine Corps. What he witnessed, he says, is unlike anything the United States military is currently prepared to face.

Drones Have Changed the Rules of War

For most of the past century, artillery was the deadliest tool on the battlefield. Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, that reality has shifted. Small, cheap, first-person-view drones — known as FPV drones — have become a primary weapon of terror and tactical control. Russian forces have even uploaded footage of these drones in action to the internet, showing them tracking and targeting civilians in real time.

"They're talking about hunting humans. They're talking about it as a kind of flex, and they post these images on Telegram, and they share them around. … It's not collateral damage. Civilians are the targets. Little old ladies walking back from the market with shopping bags under their arms. They're the targets." — Ken Harbaugh

Harbaugh describes the conflict in Ukraine as "a blend of trench warfare and the Terminator" — a place where soldiers live underground in conditions reminiscent of World War I while sophisticated drones buzz overhead, controlled through fiber optic cables that make them impossible to jam or electronically detect.

Ukraine, according to the documentary, is ground zero for 21st century drone warfare. Russia has used these weapons not just for isolated strikes, but to actively shape and control the front lines — from surveillance to targeting to psychological terror.

America Is Falling Behind

Harbaugh and former U.S. Representative Denver Riggleman, who serves as an executive producer on the film, argue that the United States is dangerously behind the curve — both in understanding the threat and in its ability to respond to it.

"We don't have an answer for it. The public is barely even aware of the threat. They know what drones are, but they do not know about their offensive capabilities and just how cheap and ubiquitous they are and how easily they can be turned into weapons." — Ken Harbaugh

Part of the problem, both men say, is the speed at which drone technology evolves on the battlefield versus how slowly the U.S. military procurement system moves. Harbaugh described watching Ukrainian forces innovate in real time — developing and 3-D printing new triggering mechanisms for drone warheads overnight based on the next day's planned targets.

"I have seen the innovation cycle at the front in Ukraine occur in a matter — I'm not exaggerating — of hours, and I've seen triggering mechanisms for warheads that are about to be fitted to the next day's drones being based on the next day's targets." — Ken Harbaugh

By contrast, that same kind of adaptation in the U.S. military can take years, cycling through procurement processes, design reviews, and layers of approval.

"That kind of innovation, which takes hours or days in Ukraine, literally takes years in the United States when you go through the procurement process, the design iterations and all the various approvals … unless we adopt some of the Ukrainian approach to innovation, we're never going to be able to adapt to a battlefield that changes by the day. We cannot have an innovation system that operates in timescales of years and decades responding to a battlefield that changes by the day." — Ken Harbaugh

"Even with the biggest military budget in the world, we're trying to catch up." — Denver Riggleman

The Warning Is No Longer Hypothetical

The film was shot last fall, but its message has become even more pressing. The United States is now in its second month of combat operations against Iran, known as Operation Epic Fury, which began on Feb. 28 alongside a joint offensive with Israel. So far, 13 American service members have been killed and nearly 300 wounded.

Just last Friday, an Iranian missile and drone attack struck Prince Sultan Airbase in Saudi Arabia, injuring a dozen U.S. troops — two of them seriously. The first American killed in the conflict died at the hands of a Shahed drone.

"I think the lack of preparedness was evident that the first U.S. service members killed was by a Shahed [drone]. When you're looking at drone warfare, we should have been well ahead of the curve with a U.S. military the might that we have, and instead, we're at the mercy of countries that had to adapt in real time in a wartime environment." — Denver Riggleman

When There's No Tech Fix, Soldiers Fill the Gap

One of the starkest realities shown in the documentary involves fiber optic drones — a category that poses a unique challenge because they carry no electromagnetic signature. They cannot be jammed. They cannot be detected by traditional electronic means. The only wire running the drone is a physical one, which means there is no signal to intercept.

The result? Ukrainian soldiers must physically place themselves between Russian drone operators and civilian populations — conducting foot patrols in some of the most dangerous territory in the world.

"You have people underground living like [it's] 1916, while you have fiber optic and radio-controlled drones buzzing around." — Denver Riggleman

When it comes to shooting drones down, the options are more basic than many might expect.

"The best way right now to shoot down drones is with a Kalashnikov … or with a .50 cal. I actually got to do that training, and even in a simulated environment, I was lucky to get 20 to 30%. These guys [have] got to be on target every time." — Denver Riggleman

The documentary makes clear that in this new era of warfare, the battlefield changes not by the year or even the month — but by the day. For the United States, the central question raised by "Drone Hunters of Kherson" is whether the country can move fast enough to keep up.