The conflict in Ukraine has introduced drone warfare at an unprecedented scale. There is a constant buzzing of drones of all sizes above the battlefield in Ukraine as both sides are using unmanned aerial systems in great numbers.

Drones have become so important throughout the war that the Ukrainian military has established a separate drone service to control and coordinate the employment of the weapon systems. And now, the Russian military is following suit and is trying to centralize command and control of its drone forces in order to maximize effectiveness. However, although logical, that move might have the opposite effect.

Russian drones

The Russian military is trying to centralize command and control of drone units. But that might not have the desirable tactical effect.

“The Russian Ministry of Defense’s (MoD) efforts to centralize control over informal Russian drone operation units may degrade the effectiveness of Russian drone capabilities,” the Institute for the Study of War assessed in its latest operational estimate of the conflict.

The Russian military has a tendency to centralize its capabilities. But that can easily put bureaucracy in front of efficiency on the battlefield and cost lives. Moreover, the Russian military is taking precious drone operators from support units and is assigning them to line infantry units that conduct human-wave attacks against the Ukrainian positions. In that way, experienced drone operators are killed in senseless World War I-style attacks, thereby depriving the Russian forces of their capabilities.

Russian military bloggers are already making a noise about the “redeployment” of drone operators in infantry tasks, highlighting the tactical and strategic shortcomings.

Although suicide drones, or one-way attack drones or loitering munitions, are the “sexiest” drones because they have a direct impact on the enemy and the course of the fighting, they only account for a very small number of the drones operating in the war. Most of the drones are used for artillery fire support and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. Through drones, commanders now have a literal picture of the battlefield as opposed to an imagined one on a map based on reports.

The Ukrainian way of drones

The Ukrainian military is truly a pioneer in drone warfare. It has created a dedicated service for drones and has brought every pertinent party, from drone operators on the contact line to drone manufacturers to software engineers, together to work closely and improve their effectiveness. The different stakeholders work together to refine capabilities and use data from previous missions to improve. It is delicate work that involves thousands of personnel on the contact line and the rear. But that is the way to win

Indeed, the way the Ukrainian military is treating its drone capabilities resembles the way the U.S. military tackled the terrorism problem during the war in Iraq when it created an industrial counterterrorism machine centered around the Joint Special Operations Command.

Although not new, drone warfare has truly come of age in the war in Ukraine, and the lessons are plenty.

Stavros Atlamazoglou is a seasoned defense journalist specializing in special operations and a Hellenic Army veteran (national service with the 575th Marine Battalion and Army HQ). He holds a BA from Johns Hopkins University and an MA from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). His work has been featured in Business Insider, Sandboxx, and SOFREP.

Image: Shutterstock.