New Strategy Center publishes a new study by Mykhailo Samus, director of New Geopolitics Research Network, Ukraine and non-resident expert at New Strategy Center, entitled „Lessons Learned from the War in Ukraine: The Impact of Drones”. The study highlights the role of unmanned systems during Russia’s two-year aggression against Ukraine, emphasising their impact on battlefield dynamics, armed forces doctrine and organisational structures.
The study highlights the key role of unmanned systems within Network Centric Warfare doctrine, showing their integration into intelligence, command, control and weapons systems. The extensive use of unmanned aerial systems by the Ukrainian armed forces, together with plans to accelerate production, underlines a proactive approach to achieving asymmetric parity with Russia. The study draws attention to doctrinal adjustments, organisational restructuring, reflected, for example, in the establishment at brigade level of a company equipped with attack UAVs, and a Directorate for Unmanned Systems within the Defence Staff, as integral components of Ukraine’s strategy.
A key point of the research is the revolutionary use of naval drones by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, which has reshaped the situation in the Black Sea and forced the Russian Fleet to withdraw from the western area. The research also addresses the strategic challenges posed by the Iranian kamikaze drone Shahed and the importance of efforts to counter Russian naval drones in the Black Sea by Ukraine, Romania and NATO. Mykhailo Samus’s study provides excellent insight into the technological evolution of drones and their profound impact on military operations.

The study can be accessed here:

Lessons Learned from the War in Ukraine: The Impact of Drones