The significance of Ukraine's 5,000-drone program is structural, not numerical. Every allied defense ministry and adversary procurement office now has a concrete, operational reference point for what AI-guided drone production at scale looks like — with real combat data behind it. Ukraine's Defense Artificial Intelligence Center exists as a formal institution, not a skunkworks project, and its head is speaking to the Associated Press about AI holding territory. The institutional legitimacy Ukraine has built around this program is the part that travels. The drones are the product; the template is…