Really not sure how to interpret this thread. I could buy a drone for 100 bucks 10 years ago.

Using cheap drones for asymmetric warfare can't be new or surprising for a country with a supposed vast intelligence network. Or for a country that's supposed to have a modern military which means having effective answers to what an enemy throws at you in battle.

My favorite example is how NATO recognized cyberspace as operational domain in 2016 — like no one there watched or heard about a movie from 1983 called „War Games”.

I think you vastly overestimate speed with which people acknowledge new facts.

Second best is only Catholic Church fully acknowledging heliocentric theories in 1992.

> can't be new or surprising

Indeed it isn't. The military has been doing cheap drone swarm research since well before ukraine. But I think that for everyone - including the military - whether or not the people in charge update their worldviews is an entirely separate matter.