"The Russians are also modifying drones to make them more efficient at air-to-air combat. In March one Russian group displayed a new drone known as “Ram” a quadcopter fitted with metal spokes to damage enemy rotor blades with impunity"
"Now the Russians have started to intercept Baba Yagas, the Ukrainians are giving their bombers fighter escorts. This Ukrainian video appears to show a Ukrainian quadcopter covering a Baba Yaga and taking out the Russian drone attempting to intercept it, suggesting that drone tactics are already looking more like WWII than WW1."
Drones replacing traditional air defense systems for cheap and slow targets: "As Ukraine develops bigger, long-ranged FPVs, these too may be used for air defense. This week President Zelensky inspected a new ‘Ukrolancet’ kamikaze drone which in addition to hitting targets on the ground, can also target low-speed air vehicles, specifically Russian Orlan-10 and Shahed drones, with a machine-vision system to aid intercepts"
The system which Sternenko showcases appears to be semi-automatic in the sense that the target is identified and highlighted first by a human. But it is just a short step from this to fully automatic systems like the technology developed by Ukraine’s Saker for heavy bomber drones which automatically spots, locate and identify targets, picking out the one with highest value.
"Others are looking at drone swarms launched from aircraft. In 2017, the Pentagon demonstrated F/A-18s releasing 103 small Perdix drones which then networked together into a swarm to carry out a mission. Again, an unmanned platform might be more useful. Last year AeroVironmentAVAV-0.1%AVAV-0.1%, makers of the five-pound SwitchBlade loitering munition, announced they were teaming up with Kratos, makers of the X-58 Valkyrie unmanned jet. A large Kratos drone will act as mothership for a host of AeroVironment loitering munitions."
The bigger commercially avaliable drones can carry up to 120 kg. (e.g. DJI Agras T50)