Are you looking for a career change? A stimulating challenge? Maybe a job where you can truly be who you always wanted to be?

Ukraine’s western air command may have just the thing for you: flying interceptor drones. A role, it announced in a recent Facebook post, that is “very interesting”, “promising” and will allow successful applicants to “express” themselves.

It’s not the usual language of a recruiting sergeant in a war of national survival, but nor is it entirely misleading. For the interceptor drone is rapidly emerging as the most important weapon in the age of automated warfare.

Indeed, from Nato’s headquarters in Brussels, to the halls of military power in Beijing, military officials may soon be racing to acquire their own.

The blitz

The first Russian drone attack to hit Kyiv in October 2022 involved nearly 30 Shaheds, the 8ft-wide, Iranian-designed kamikaze drone that has become the mainstay of Russia’s bombing campaign.

Since then, the petrol-motor buzz of approaching Shaheds, thought to cost between $20,000-$50,000 (£14,000-£36,000) a unit, has become all too familiar to Ukrainian soldiers and civilians. All the while, the drone swarms have grown ever larger.