Ukraine’s drone forces are becoming less effective, forcing it to innovate to not be left behind.
While Ukraine used to be able to rely on off-the-shelf civilian drones, Russia is getting better at countering those, forcing Ukraine to seek more advanced tech.
A Ukrainian drone operator and an expert described the situation to Business Insider.
Jammed and spoofed
They said Russia improved its jamming and spoofing equipment, making those cheaper drones more likely to fail.
Cmdr. Vitaliy Kryukov, a loitering-munition commander for Ukraine’s elite Adam Tactical Group, said he believes basic drones will soon be obsolete.
Civilian-grade gear, he said, would have little worth without major software and hardware improvements to extend their range and resist jamming.
Their effectiveness is “significantly dropping” as Russia’s electromagnetic warfare systems get more powerful, he said.
A soldier with Ukraine’s 58th Independent Motorized Infantry Brigade catches a drone.
REUTERS/Leah Millis
Drones have been a hallmark of the war in Ukraine, with both sides using them to attack, to surveil, and to target more accurately.
Ukraine relied more heavily on the kind of drones ordinary people buy to record weddings or vacations, said James Patton Rogers, a drone expert at the Cornell Brooks Tech Policy Institute.
Near Dibrova in the Luhansk region, a Russian tank was struck by an FPV drone and burned out. Work by the 100th Territorial Defense Brigade. pic.twitter.com/ZaNAbS3lJg
— NOELREPORTS 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 (@NOELreports) January 18, 2024
Ukraine typically uses its smaller drones for spying and directing attacks.
But some have been adapted for direct offense, by attaching bombs or grenades to take on Russian troops and armor themselves.
An adapted drone worth a few hundred dollars can help take out a tank that costs millions.
A “worrying” change
Ukrainian soldiers prize the drones highly, and have gone to great lengths to raise money for more through crowdfunding.
Rogers agreed with Krykuov’s assessment that the cheap drones were waning in effectiveness, a “worrying” development given how much they are relied on.
Ukraine has also been leaning even more on offensive drones as it struggles to find ammo for its heavy weapons.
Another problem is that many of its drones come from China, which has restricted Ukraine’s ability to access its products.
Those challenges, Rogers said, prompted Ukraine to prepare.
Homegrown drones
Drone innovation from both sides led to what Rogers called a “cat and mouse game of drone offense and defenses.”
Ukrainian soldiers watch a drone feed from an underground command center in Bakhmut in December 2023.
AP Photo/Libkos
Ukraine is increasingly making more advanced drones for itself.
Rogers described it as a fragmented industry, with drones and components made in small sites across the country.
Rogers said “there appears to be a different drone manufacturing hub in almost every town or city across Ukraine.”
This includes ones said to be jamming-resistant, as well as autonomous, AI-powered drones that carry bombs.
Neither country will stop using civilian drones completely, Rogers said. Ukraine instead will increasingly upgrade them or use parts to create new drones.
A Ukrainian soldier launches a drone in March 2023.
AP Photo/Roman Chop
He said Ukraine has an “innovative startup hotbed of a drone industry” and a growing expertise in drone production that can give it powerful battlefield abilities.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy vowed a million extra drones would be made in Ukraine in 2024.
Kryukov said civilian drones with heavy upgrades were effective enough on the front lines for now, as Ukraine works to boost its arsenal.
He said Ukraine’s drone makers are “working hard. They are not sleeping.”
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