Can a $500 drone threaten a $50 million fighter-bomber? The recent Ukrainian strike on Russia’s Marinovka air base, nearly 1,000 kilometers from the front lines, suggests the answer is yes and the implications are reshaping modern air warfare.

Russia’s Shahed drone swarms are pummeling Ukraine on a nightly basis, inflicting ever more death and destruction in cities that had managed to carve out some sense of normalcy amid wartime. With traditional air defense stockpiles running low,