The New Weapon Russia Fears MostBy Joel Litman, chief investment officer, Altimetry
 The tanks have vanished from Red Square...
On May 9, Russia held its annual Victory Day Parade to celebrate the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. Soldiers marched through Moscow while President Vladimir Putin watched from the reviewing stand. But the typical shows of force were nowhere to be found. For almost 20 years, armored vehicles, heavy artillery, and other major weapons were included in the procession. But in 2026, Russian officials ordered the tanks to stay on the front lines in the war with Ukraine. For once, they feared an attack during the ceremony. A parade intended to display Russian power had become a security risk. And it was all thanks to Robert "Madyar" Brovdi... Brovdi is one of Russia's top assassination targets...He's the head of Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces. Most importantly, he created the 414th Brigade – an elite drone unit known as Madyar's Birds. He happened to join Ukraine's Territorial Defense Forces shortly before Russia's full-scale attack in February 2022. And in one of his first firefights, his unit was caught off guard by enemy bombardment. After the incident, Brovdi sought a way to locate the enemy without sending another soldier into danger. Then he had an epiphany... He thought about the small drone he once purchased for his children. So Brovdi brought similar civilian models to the front lines for surveillance, giving his unit a better view of the battlefield. The drones would relay images of Russian positions to Ukrainian artillery crews, who could then adjust their aim. Then his soldiers started modifying the drones with weapons, making them an even bigger threat... and creating the force known today as Madyar's Birds. It has been a little over a year since Brovdi took over Ukraine's drone operation...And since then, its number of strikes is up 28-fold. Drone flights deep into enemy territory have increased almost fourfold. And his birds have destroyed more than $5 billion worth of Russian equipment so far this year. As of 2025, drones caused as much as 80% of battlefield casualties in the Russia-Ukraine war. That's up from less than 10% in 2022.
Within four years of being deployed, inexpensive, unmanned aircraft have forced machines worth millions of dollars into hiding. Putin once expected to drive quickly through Ukraine. But by 2026, his government was planning its most important military ceremony around the possibility that Ukrainian drones could reach Moscow. This is what the modern battlefront looks like...In the future of warfare, militaries will need to replace equipment and adapt their tactics at an extraordinary speed. As Brovdi has shown with his birds, it only takes a few years to build a threat capable of bringing one of the biggest military forces in the world to its knees. The U.S. is taking this modernization threat seriously, too. We're strengthening our military forces. We're expanding our defenses in orbit. And we're building the same unmanned drone systems proving decisive on Ukraine's front lines. That work requires years of investment... and a defense industry capable of handling projects across the sea, the sky, and in space. This is a great time for folks to dive headfirst into top defense stocks. The ones at the forefront of this rebuild will lead the pack... giving investors exposure to the systems that will defend our future. Regards, Joel Litman
August 18, 2026 P.S. The U.S. economy is hiding a reality that almost nobody is talking about. It all has to do with a clue – dating back to 1776 – about what would decide who gets rich in America. The consequences of this "Second Declaration" didn't show up right away. We could afford to ignore the warnings. And that’s what we did... for generations. Except now we can't ignore it any longer. To learn more about what I believe is the biggest story of my career, click here.
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