A historian writing about the 2022 war in Ukraine would probably spend a lot of ink and pages on unmanned aerial systems and their impact on the fighting.

Thousands of Drones

Both Russia and Ukraine are using thousands of drones to support their ground forces on a scale never before seen in warfare. The Russian military, in particular, has been heavily relying on the deployment of drones to achieve kinetic results both on the contact line and against Ukrainian urban centers.

For example, in November, the Russian forces launched approximately 2,300 one-way attack drones of varying types against Ukrainian military positions and urban centers. That is a record number of kinetic drone attacks, and the volume of drone attacks keeps increasing every month.

“Monthly [drone attack] numbers have been increasingly consistently throughout 2024, with significant increases—greater than 200 on the previous month—since July 2024,” the British Military Intelligence assessed on Monday.

Equipped with explosive charges of varying destructive capabilities, ranging from grenade- to missile-level, one-way attack drones are very useful and can take out an enemy command and control posts and incapacitate heavy main battle tanks.

“It is likely that through September-November 2024, as many as 50-60% of the total launches were ‘decoy’ [One Way Attack Uncrewed Aerial Systems] OWA UAS,” the British Military Intelligence stated.

But the Ukrainians are also using drones quite effectively. For example, the Ukrainian military has killed and wounded scores of North Korean troops in the Kursk Oblast with suicide drones,

“The rate of increase from October to November dropped in comparison to previous months. December 2024 launch figures show approximately 850 launches so far. However, it is likely that weather has impacted operations in December, evidenced through some nights with significantly larger waves following a period of low or no activity,” the British Military Intelligence stated.

Moscow has received thousands of unmanned aerial systems from Iran, as well as the know-how to replicate Iranian drones in Russia.

“With no impact on launch sites of production, it remains likely that Russia can sustain numbers at least in excess of 1,500 per month. Russian OWA UAS maintain coverage of targets across the entirety of Ukraine, enabling Russia to maintain pressure while allowing Long Range Aviation Missile stocks to replenish,” the British Military Intelligence concluded.

The First Drone War

In many ways, the war in Ukraine is the first drone war. To be sure, unmanned aerial vehicles have been around for decades—the U.S. Intelligence Community and military pioneered their use in intelligence gathering and precision strike missions in the 1990s and 2000s.

But, until the large-scale invasion of Russia in Ukraine, there hadn’t been such a prolific employment of drones by two conventional militaries against one another. Today, in the trenches of Ukraine, ordinary foot soldiers can rely on the support of several drones when advancing or defending, while they have to keep an eye out for enemy surveillance and one-way attack unmanned aerial systems.

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.

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