Anduril, a heavy hitter among Silicon Valley’s new generation of miltech unicorns, put out a flurry of announcements touting its generalized “success in Ukraine” as a pitch for new drone systems that were receiving lucrative contracts with the U.S. Defense Department.Western militaries are not shy about viewing Ukraine as a “laboratory” or “testing ground” for high-tech weapons. Given both the unprecedented use of drones in Ukraine and the novelty of the industry globally, U.S. manufacturers are keen to headline their work at the Ukrainian frontline.“You cannot field an American drone system today that doesn't have the moniker of ‘battle-tested in Ukraine’ on it. You can’t. Which is why everybody’s trying to do it,” says James Acuna, a 20-year CIA operations officer and former naval architect, currently consulting on drones from Estonia.