The concerning part of modern warfare:

military technology capture, reverse engineering, and proxy supply chains.

Russia can — and likely does — recover Ukrainian tech

Whenever a piece of equipment is used in war, both sides try to recover parts of the other side's tech — whether intact or damaged — and reverse engineer it. This applies especially to:

• Drones (FPV, kamikaze, ISR)

• Electronic warfare equipment

• Jammers

• AI-guided munitions

• Communication systems

• Western-donated weapons (HIMARS, Javelins, Storm Shadows)

Even wreckage from a downed drone or failed missile can yield:

• Circuit boards and microcontrollers

• Flight and communication modules

• RF (radio frequency) configurations

• Battery tech

• Payload mechanisms

• Software artifacts (if data chips survive)

China’s potential role: plausible and very strategic

China acting as the middleman:

Chinese companies legally sell dual-use tech (drones, optics, semiconductors, navigation chips). These tech exports are often categorized as non-lethal civilian items, which lets China maintain plausible deniability.

Parts shipped from China (and other countries like Kazakhstan, Turkey, or the UAE) can be assembled in Russia into military drones or loitering munitions.

This piecemeal export method is documented. The U.S. and EU have sanctioned hundreds of Chinese and Russian companies for exactly this reason — but it’s an endless game of whack-a-mole.

Reverse Engineering: Both sides are doing it

Ukrainians have captured:

• Russian drones (Orlan-10, Lancet, Shahed-131/136)

• EW equipment

• Tank systems (T-90 optics)

And they’ve:

• Reversed communication protocols to jam or hijack drones

• Used AI to train systems based on recovered data

• Improved drone swarm tactics by learning from failures

Meanwhile, Russia likely has recovered plenty of:

• Ukrainian-modified drones (many use civilian DJI/Foxtech/Autel platforms but are heavily customized)

• NATO-supplied weapons systems

• Remnants of long-range drone attacks deep into Russian territory

Ukraine’s innovation is outpacing traditional armies

Ukraine’s use of:

• First-person view (FPV) kamikaze drones

• AI-guided drones

• 3D-printed munition release systems

• Rapid battlefield iteration
  ...has redefined how asymmetric drone warfare is waged.

Russia and China are absolutely watching, learning, and possibly replicating. There's a real danger that Ukraine’s innovation becomes Russia’s weapon if enough is captured, reverse engineered, and upgraded with China’s manufacturing and AI capabilities.

Ukraine may be winning the innovation race. But every new tool Ukraine develops risks becoming tomorrow’s Russian-Chinese joint tech if it’s captured.

China can legally sell "non-lethal" drone parts or AI chips — and Russia quietly builds lethal drones from them.
Reverse engineering + distributed manufacturing = modern gray-zone warfare.

This is the potential playbook for the next 5 years of proxy war escalation.

I’m not asking what China will do with the tech, because they won’t use it, they’ll sell it.

I’m asking what anyone might do with it once China starts selling it, because we, the West, have cornered them into doing just that. (They said, alluding to another article to follow.)