Current State of Drone Warfare in the Russia-Ukraine War

by sdruav.com | Oct 04, 2025 | Articles

Current State of Drone Warfare in the Russia-Ukraine War
The Russia-Ukraine conflict has evolved into a highly intense"drone war," with both sides escalating their investments and competition in drone technology, tactics, and scale. Below is a brief analysis of the current state of drone usage on the battlefield, providing a quick overview of the general situation.

I. Main Current Situations and Characteristics
1. Battlefield Role and Impact
Core Strike Force: Drones undertake a significant portion of fire strike missions. It is claimed that approximately 80% of fire strikes in Russian operation areas are conducted by unmanned systems.
Primary Source of Casualties: Drones are responsible for about 70% of casualties on the battlefield.
Changing Combat Patterns: They have significantly reduced the consumption of traditional artillery and missiles, while making traditional ground infiltration and special operations considerably more difficult.

2. Main Types and Tactics
FPV Suicide Drones: Used for precision strikes against tanks, infantry, etc. Tactics have even evolved to include"drone dogfights" for intercepting enemy drones and even helicopters.
Long-Range Loitering Munitions: Employ"swarm" tactics to conduct saturation attacks against air defense systems.
Fiber-Optic Guided Drones: These transmit signals via fiber optic cables, making them immune to traditional electronic warfare (EW) jamming. They have emerged as a new method to counter intense EW.
AI and Smart Drones: Both sides are actively developing and testing drones equipped with machine vision, autonomous target identification, and even"mothership drones" capable of deploying FPV drones.

3. Technological Countermeasures and Evolution
Rapid Pace of Development: The iteration cycle for drone technology and counter-drone measures is extremely short, with significant changes occurring approximately every two weeks.
Electronic Warfare (EW) Contest: Jamming and anti-jamming are central to the conflict. The emergence of fiber-optic drones is a direct response to break through EW suppression.
Cost-Effectiveness Competition: Using inexpensive FPV drones to intercept high-value targets solves the problem of the excessive cost of using air defense missiles.

4. Production and Scale
Mass Production: Both sides are producing millions of drones annually.
Technology Spillover and Concerns: Drone activities have frequently appeared in NATO airspace, raising security concerns. The EU is planning to create a"drone wall" defense system.

II. How Drones Are Changing the Battlefield
Beyond the macro situations listed above, several specific tactical innovations and application details are noteworthy:
1."Drone Dogfights" Become Reality: Because using expensive air defense missiles to intercept low-cost drones is highly inefficient, both sides have begun extensively using FPV drones for air defense missions.

2. Fiber-Optic Drones Change the Game: To counter powerful EW jamming, Russian forces have deployed fiber-optic guided drones on a large scale. These drones are nearly unaffected by radio jamming and provide stable, high-definition video for precise target identification and strikes. Ukrainian forces are also racing to catch up, accelerating the deployment of their own domestically produced fiber-optic drones.

3. AI Drones Are Nascent but Competition Is Fierce: Although fully autonomous AI drones are not yet deployed in large-scale combat, testing and competition between the sides is intense.

4. Machine Vision: Drones from both sides are being equipped with machine vision algorithms, enabling them to continue locking onto targets using image memory even when GPS is jammed.

5. Drone Swarms: Russian forces have tested AI-coordinated drone swarms capable of autonomous target identification and engagement.

6. Airborne Mothership Drones: Ukrainian forces have tested a"mothership drone" named GOGOL-M, which can autonomously fly within a 300 km range and deploy two FPV drones to attack targets.

III. Future Development Trends
1. Intelligentization and Autonomy: Despite technical and cost challenges, the application of AI and machine learning in drones is an inevitable trend, aiming to achieve fully autonomous identification, decision-making, and swarm cooperative combat.

2. Dual Competition in Scale and Cost: On one hand, both sides will continue to push for the mass production of drones to overwhelm the opponent with sheer numbers. On the other hand, they will continue leveraging the cost advantage of using low-cost drones to attrit enemy high-value assets or expensive air defense missiles.

3. Continuous Rapid Iteration of Attack and Defense Technologies: The contest between EW and anti-jamming technologies, as well as reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance methods, will continue to intensify. The quality and speed of innovation will determine who holds the battlefield advantage.

Current State of Drone Warfare in the Russia-Ukraine War

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