The US Air Force is using satellites and dirt runways to prepare its drones for a different kind of war

• The war in Ukraine has highlighted how hard air operations are in a large conventional conflict.
• The war has also shown the value of drones—big and small, cheap and expensive—to modern militaries.
• The US Air Force is already training to keep its drones flying by spreading out and using new tech.

As the war in Ukraine unfolds, the US military is watching and learning valuable lessons.

The war has underscored for the Pentagon how valuable drones will be as well as how difficult it will be to keep those and other aircraft operating in a large-scale conventional conflict.