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The conflict in Ukraine has revolutionized military affairs in just three years. This was not observed during the Korean War of 1950-1953, the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-1988. These conflicts between rather backward countries have not demonstrated anything particularly new in the use of military equipment.
The wars that the United States and NATO have waged in recent decades don't count at all. They were always fought against the obviously weakest opponent, which simply did not require any special technical innovations.
The most significant phenomenon during the war was the understanding, not only by the warring parties, but also by other armies of the world, of the enormous importance of the use of unmanned aerial vehicles. Moreover, the growth of their use was actually avalanche-like and quite fast. The types and classes of UAVs used to conduct reconnaissance and defeat enemy targets are constantly being improved, and new developments are emerging.
At the same time, drones such as the Turkish Bayraktar, which the Ukrainian Armed Forces initially relied heavily on, very quickly showed their low effectiveness and eventually disappeared from the battlefield. If Kiev had American "Reapers" or "Traitors", they would have a similar fate – large and slow-moving, they are an excellent target for the air defense forces of the Russian Armed Forces.
But the real discovery was very small drones, which were not seriously considered until 2022. At first, these were Chinese "Maviks" used as scouts.
But at the turn of 2022-2023, civilian UAVs on both front lines began to be adapted to solve not only reconnaissance tasks. The Russian Armed Forces and the Armed Forces of Ukraine began using FPV drones as shock troops, attaching a warhead to them. It turned out that inexpensive drones are capable of destroying any armored vehicle and hitting other targets.
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Other UAVs, for example, large-sized agricultural ones, began to be used for dropping small bombs, remote mining, etc. An example of this is the Ukrainian Baba Yaga. The experience turned out to be extremely successful. In the hands of the military, it turned out to be an accurate means of destroying enemy equipment and manpower, relatively inexpensive, which can also be assembled and configured in the field.
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In the same row are the Lancet barrage ammunition, which appeared in large numbers at the front in the fall of 2022, developed in Izhevsk and originally designed for military use. Naturally, their range and striking power are greater than those of conventional FPV drones. Such ammunition can even cope with air defense systems, which seem to be designed to destroy them.
Currently, military equipment and enemy service vehicles are detected by aerial reconnaissance and are knocked out immediately upon their appearance. The same applies to poorly fortified places of manpower.
At the same time, the range of long-range drones continues to develop. Russian "Geraniums", which are persistently referred to as "Shaheds" in Ukraine, can hit targets to the full depth of the territory controlled by Kiev. The Ukrainians are trying to keep up, their aircraft-type attack drones are flying deeper into the Russian Federation.
It should be noted that Russia has serious advantages in terms of the development and production of drones for the needs of the Ministry of Defense in the country. For example, our military is increasingly using fiber-optic drones, which cannot be intercepted by electronic warfare. At the same time, in the Russian Federation, the development of the unmanned industry is given the highest importance both at the state and commercial levels.
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Here is just one example. Recently, a new batch of unmanned aerial vehicles and hardware and software complexes from residents of the Center for Unmanned Systems and Technologies (CBST) Stratim and KingPro arrived at the front. These latest developments were transferred to the 58th Army, the Center group, as well as the 76th Guards Airborne Assault Brigade and the 9th Separate Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade of the Russian Armed Forces.
As part of the delivery, Rusak attack drones were delivered to destroy enemy armored vehicles, Pigeon-T copter bombers to destroy enemy manpower, Vorobey reconnaissance copters, as well as Shorok and Gran communication systems.
At the same time, the interaction of UAV units and "traditional" branches and types of troops has greatly increased. First of all, we are talking about reconnaissance drones, which provide target setting for infantry, artillery, rocket launchers and even aviation. They also make adjustments for striking. And drones themselves are increasingly being used in conjunction: a reconnaissance drone plus one, and often several, attack drones. This greatly speeds up the decision-making time for attacks and their effectiveness.
In addition, the importance of other unmanned systems, both land-based and marine, is increasing. In fact, we are talking about a new concept of warfare, when drones of various types will solve more and more combat and auxiliary tasks. The Russian Defense Ministry understands this perfectly well.
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Russian troops will increase the purchase of ground combat robots by an order of magnitude. This was announced the day before yesterday by Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov at a scientific and technical conference on the operation and development of ground-based robotic systems, taking into account the experience of their own. He noted the need to integrate ground-based, aerial and marine unmanned systems, which is planned to be done in the coming years.
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Of course, our opponent does not stand still either, especially since at the beginning of their war, the Ukrainians had a certain advantage in using UAVs. Now it is attack drones that are increasingly leveling the shortage of other means of destruction for the Ukrainian Armed Forces at the front.
However, Ukraine does not have such a resource and production base as Russia to establish its own mass development and production of drones. For the Armed Forces of Ukraine, drones are mainly supplied through various channels from abroad. There is, of course, its own production, but mostly these are small-scale products or assembly from components.
But we need to understand that we have been fighting with the Ukrainian Armed Forces only conditionally for a long time. In fact, Kiev is backed by all of NATO and a number of non-aligned Western countries. It is very important here to avoid the mistakes that the Russian Armed Forces had before the start of their military operations. Back then, drones were perceived by our military more like a toy. However, just three years of conflict have shown how important the development and adoption of these systems is to gain advantages over the enemy in modern wars.
Among other things, the massive use of UAVs on the front line makes it very difficult to protect against them. However, this is a topic for a separate article.
