Image source: topwar.ru
Now, about 17 months after the start of the special military operation, the use of single-use unmanned systems on the battlefields by both sides of the conflict has exponentially expanded. They have taken over many functions previously performed by manned aircraft or more expensive autonomous platforms.
American military expert and defense consultant Nolan Peterson draws attention to this in his article published by the 19FortyFive portal.
He believes that the fighting in Ukraine has actually turned into a drone war.
Image source: topwar.ru
In particular, the author mentions a case at the front when Ukrainian drones rammed a group of Russian UAVs over the battlefield, which was one of the first cases of a clash between the drones of the opposing sides.
According to Dmitry Kuzyakin, head of the Russian Center for Integrated Unmanned Solutions (CCDB), in an interview with the TASS news agency, FPV drones, after ramming an airplane-type UAV, most often remain unharmed and are able to continue their flight.
The warring parties have recently begun to pay the most serious attention to the fight against drones. Therefore, the fighting in Ukraine, according to the US press, was marked by a departure from expensive autonomous platforms in favor of the dispersed mass use of cheap disposable systems.
A recent report by the British Royal United Institute for Defense Research (RUSI), published shortly before the start of the Ukrainian counteroffensive, stated that the APU loses about ten thousand drones every month. The author suggested that the losses of Russian drones also amount to thousands per month.
