Event Details

The Centre for War and Diplomacy at Lancaster University and the Royal Air Force Museum are delighted to present the 2025 Air Power Lecture, in which Dr Dominika Kunertova will speak on 'Innovate, Integrate, Repeat: The Changing Character of Drone Warfare'

Tuesday 18th March 2025, 17.30-19.00

CWD-RAFM Air Power Lecture: Dominika Kunertova,'Innovate, Integrate, Repeat: The Changing Character of Drone Warfare'

Most drone warfare has been associated with sophisticated airborne platforms fighting international terrorism. Contemporary drone warfare, however, is less remote and less exquisite. Over the past few years, consumer drones have mutated from a security nuisance into combat assets. The spread of cheap drones across borders and types of actors has altered cost and risk calculations on the battlefield. Most notably, Russia’s ongoing war on Ukraine has led to exponential innovation-adaptation cycles in drone technology and tactics. Inexpensive and replicable drones demonstrate their utility in high-intensity warfare by providing a live-feed of the battlefield and becoming ammunition themselves. Armed forces are rethinking their appreciation of uncrewed systems in terms of both platforms and functions. While drone diversity has highlighted the vertical dimension in land operations, its impact on reinventing airpower and transforming the Air Force remains more difficult to grasp. Will the era of artificial intelligence show the way forward?

Dr Dominika Kunertova a research scientist with over a decade of transatlantic professional experience in academic, think tank, and international organization settings. Her research covers military applications of emerging and disruptive technologies and their impact on international security and transatlantic defence cooperation. She is a non-resident senior fellow at the Transatlantic Security Initiative of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, and a NATO partner country director of a project on future drone warfare and technology, funded by the NATO Science for Peace and Security Programme. Kunertova’s research has been published in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Contemporary Security Policy, Defence Studies, European Security, the Journal of Contemporary European Research, Military Review, the Naval War College Review, and more. She has also authored numerous policy reports and briefs on drones, missile technology and arms control, hypersonic weapons, artificial intelligence, and European security in the NATO context. Her public affairs commentary has appeared in outlets including the RUSI Newsbrief, The Conversation, Le Rubicon, and War on the Rocks.