The National Interest: This Is The Beginning Of A New Era Of Warfare
5- 20.05.2025, 16:09
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Ukraine has made drones the weapon of the future.
With the start of a full-scale war in 2022, Ukraine faced a shortage of traditional weapons, especially artillery. However, this shortage has been partially filled thanks to the mass and effective use of cheap, mass-produced drones, writes The National Interest (translated by Charter97.org).
Russia quickly adopted this practice, and now both sides of the conflict are actively using drones to perform the widest range of combat missions.
Now in the fourth year of the war, drones have become an integral part of the strategy of both armies - from reconnaissance and logistics to demining and striking enemy personnel. Interestingly, a significant portion of the vehicles in use are not military designs at all, but modified civilian drones adapted for combat operations. This transition signals a new phase in the history of armed conflicts.
It was Ukraine that initially demonstrated the most innovative approach to the use of drones on the battlefield, compensating for the shortage of heavy weapons.
The Ukrainian conflict became the largest conventional war of the 21st century and at the same time the first large-scale conflict in which drones play such an important role. The development of drone tactics in this war has made the technology more accessible, and instructions on how to build combat drones with your own hands can now be found in the public domain. This is a wake-up call for global security: how unique is the Ukrainian experience, and what lessons will armies around the world learn from it?
War analyst and expert on robotic systems and artificial intelligence at the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA) Samuel Bendett noted that the confrontation between Russia and Ukraine has taken the use of drones to a new level, becoming a testbed for future armed conflicts.
"What we are seeing today in Ukraine is the beginning of a new era of warfare where man and machine operate together as a fighting unit," Bendett said.
Drones, once considered an auxiliary tool, have become the centerpiece of modern tactics. And while Ukraine and Russia are perfecting their drone arsenals, the rest of the world is watching - and learning.
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