Drones have performed a pivotal position in Ukraine’s defence through the Russia-Ukraine warfare. Jon-Wyatt Matlack, Sebastian Schwartz and Oliver Gill argue the drone warfare ecosystem Ukraine has quickly developed affords some highly effective classes for Europe.
On 2 June 2025, the UK printed a brand new Strategic Defence Evaluate. The evaluate articulates 5 guiding ideas: shifting in the direction of warfighting readiness, offering an engine for financial development, adopting a “NATO first” strategic posture, pursuing UK innovation pushed by classes from Ukraine, and embracing a whole-of-society method to defence.
A query the evaluate implicitly raises is who the popular future companions must be for UK safety. It walks a good rope on this context, noting that the US “is the UK’s closest defence and safety ally”, however quietly admitting that “the US’ safety priorities are altering” to pivot in the direction of the Pacific. But taking the evaluate at its phrase, two of its 5 calls to motion align with the core arguments we make in a latest report printed by LSE IDEAS, specifically that the UK ought to be taught classes from Ukraine and undertake a whole-of-society method to defence.
Ukraine’s drone warfare ecosystem
Our report explores Ukraine’s drone warfare ecosystem and its various actors. Unmanned techniques like drones have performed a pivotal position within the warfare between Russia and Ukraine. But whereas drones have captured the eye of the world, it’s essential to contemplate the position of the actors and processes that assist their use.
We argue that drones alone don’t generate functionality and that an ecosystem of practitioners is required. The adaptability of drones comes from speedy suggestions loops between customers and producers, enabled by a succesful human worth chain. Ukraine’s drone warfare ecosystem incorporates a variety of stakeholders, together with defence/tech industries and the navy, in addition to civilian experience and multilateral state cooperation. This assist construction – the “crew” behind the drones – is simply as essential because the weapon techniques themselves.
The crucial for different international locations to observe Ukraine’s lead and embrace these techniques is accelerating. But when the UK desires to be taught these classes, it should act now. Ukraine’s circle of drone practitioners is diminishing on the battlefield on daily basis. Failure to have interaction would imply forfeiting this collected experience to Europe’s adversaries.
Pace, scale and urgency
Our analysis attracts on main interviews with practitioners carried out on the bottom in Ukraine within the third quarter of 2024. Our dataset contains enter from senior commanders within the Armed Forces of Ukraine, political advisors, and officers from the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine, in addition to views from frontline drone pilots and drone college instructors. Briefly – the folks comprising the drone ecosystem.
We deal with three points of Ukraine’s drone ecosystem that NATO international locations should totally comprehend: velocity, scale and urgency. First, you will need to perceive that Ukraine’s drone experience originated in a extremely decentralised method. Civilian-run drone colleges, brigade-level procurement, advert hoc workshops and manufacturing centres, and volunteer models working independently are usually not outliers — they’re the norm. Initially, discovering drone innovators was extra a matter of community attain than institutional entry. This bottom-up construction displays cultural traits, not a breakdown of navy management.
Second, roles on this ecosystem are fluid. Drone instructors are sometimes ex-soldiers who nonetheless rotate by way of frontline models, updating their data and validating techniques within the discipline. This suggestions loop feeds straight again into coaching. Civilian volunteers then soak up and apply these classes, rising public possession of the warfare effort and blurring the traces between civilian and combatant innovation. A latest report by the Sahaidachnyi Safety Centre confirms the significance of civil society’s position in accelerating drone innovation.
Third, the ecosystem strikes quick – far quicker than conventional NATO buildings. Borrowing from software program growth, private-sector expertise integrates seamlessly into the defence house in what we name “Struggle DevOps”. As a result of drones are inherent dual-use items, civilian technologists turn into key drivers of battlefield adaptation. Tons of of drone variants cycle by way of fight testing and obsolescence in weeks, generally days, as Russian countermeasures drive steady redesign. This tempo is barely attainable by way of an agile human community that permits speedy ideation and iteration.
A brand new particular relationship?
NATO is constructed on the assumption that the safety challenges posed by Russia can solely be solved along side allies. But we detect in UK and NATO defence circles the results of inertia and even apprehension when confronted with adapting to Ukraine’s fast paced and decentralised analysis and growth, procurement and manufacturing buildings – and the Ukrainians themselves are conscious of this downside.
Presently, there are greater than 200 developed kinds of Ukrainian unmanned aerial automobile. Whereas this has allowed Ukraine to quickly prototype and innovate, it comes at the price of effectivity. It’s understood that Ukraine is within the strategy of synthesising the 20-30 most adaptable and efficient techniques in an effort to spice up manufacturing and permit for exports to be despatched to allies.
On this vein, Ukraine not too long ago introduced that it’ll start overseas manufacturing and exporting of proprietary defence applied sciences to most well-liked European and NATO companions this 12 months. Ukraine’s allies ought to make use of this. And as Europe begins to shift its considerably rusty defence trade into gear, it shouldn’t overlook Ukraine’s personal industrial capability.
The resolve to systematically increase Europe’s defence capabilities and deepen cooperation has been seen in latest months at occasions just like the Chatham Home London Convention and the Kiel Worldwide Seapower Symposium (KISS). The importance of the latter occasion was inadvertently elevated by the unceremonious cancellation of the 56-year-old Worldwide Seapower Symposium historically hosted by the US Navy in Newport, Rhode Island.
There was robust illustration from the US Navy at KISS, and military-to-military transatlantic cooperation stays steadfast regardless of the present political local weather inside NATO. However the transatlantic alliance is undeniably strained. This was acutely embodied in March by J.D. Vance’s dismissive feedback on the UK as “some random nation”. Britain ought to take into account deepening safety cooperation with international locations keen to accentuate, relatively than dismantle, their political partnerships.
There may be already a stable foundation for Britain to develop a better safety relationship with Ukraine, as proven, as an illustration, by the UK’s co-leadership of the drone coalition. This might be invaluable to the UK given Ukraine boasts Europe’s largest and most skilled typical military. Our analysis demonstrates that Ukraine – if empowered to outlive – will turn into a vital chief in European defence expertise capabilities.
Classes for Europe
The teachings from Ukraine’s drone ecosystem are relevant to all domains: sea, land, air and house. Whereas our report critically examines first particular person view (FPV) drones, the primary differentiator of unmanned techniques lies in software program and battle administration techniques that interlink them. Classical silos separating battle domains want pressing redressing on this context.
The buildings that propel Struggle DevOps are the first facilitator of navy innovation. Openness to interdisciplinary, iterative approaches to the event of drones – and different navy techniques – are key to efficiently tackling future safety challenges. Crucially, collaboration must deal with these consultants and practitioners who perceive this expertise greatest. The excellent news is that the required buildings will be inbuilt peacetime. The choice – studying these classes on the sector of battle – is dear, as Ukraine has valiantly demonstrated.
The precise roles and results of drones in future wars is unsure. What is definite is that ignoring them – and the folks constructing them – can be each a strategic error and a missed alternative. Ukraine’s Struggle DevOps buildings supply essential classes for European defence reform. Materials assist and structured collaboration with Ukraine’s drone ecosystem serve shared pursuits. Western navy innovation doesn’t have a monopoly on good concepts – and techno-optimism alone is not going to win future conflicts. Preserving Ukraine’s ecosystem strengthens NATO, whereas ignoring it strengthens Russia.
For extra info, see the authors’ accompanying report printed by LSE IDEAS.
Observe: This text provides the views of the authors, not the place of EUROPP – European Politics and Coverage or the London Faculty of Economics. Featured picture credit score: Parilov / Shutterstock.com
