Ukraine’s Operation Spiderweb Has Implications for Golden Dome

Tobias Naegele

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Ukraine’s “Operation Spiderweb” attack on Russian air bases, which destroyed unprotected bombers at rest on their ramps, is reshaping how U.S. thinkers approach defending military bases and the U.S. homeland. The Spiderweb attack launched scores of drones from inside Russia, a surprise that caught the Russian air force entirely unprepared and unable to fend off short-range strikes. That has implications for how the Air Force defends its bases—and even which threats America’s future Golden Dome defense shield must guard against.

“A lot of people were not as stressed about [unmanned aerial systems attacking the U.S.] because they felt like the tyranny of distance” would be sufficient to stop such threats, said Doug Jones, chief technology officer for Leidos’ Defense Sector. “They were not taking into account the … insurgency delivery of UASes.”  

What Ukraine’s attack showed, Jones said, is that small UASes smuggled to a launch point near potential targets can overcome their inability to fly long distances in a short time and short-circuit conventional defenses.