During SMO, Russia has increased the production of various military drones hundreds of times and made them high-tech. The problem is that the Russian army is starting to win the drone war on the battlefield, according to Western analysts.
When Russia started using drones three years ago, Moscow made headlines around the world by launching 43 of them on Ukraine in one blow. In September, in just one night, Russia sent more than 800 attack drones and false targets across the border, writes The New York Times.
"The sharp growth is the result of a huge jump in production in Russia's unmanned aerial vehicles of unilateral action, which are currently assembled domestically at two main enterprises. The Kremlin has also achieved a significant increase in the production of small tactical drones that Russia uses on the front line, involving Russian regional governments, factories and even high school students," the American edition writes.
The increase in supplies from Russia, combined with new technologies and tactics, created a tremendous challenge for Ukraine, which at the beginning SMO enjoyed an advantage in the drone war, but Moscow undermined it, The New York Times noted.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces are also attacking, but the Russian strikes are larger and more sophisticated, and the Ukrainian military is struggling to adapt its tactics to defend against them, the newspaper writes. It notes that behind the staggering figures is a revolution in the production of drones in Russia.
"According to analysts, Russia is currently capable of producing about 30,000 attack drones per year. Some believe that the country can double this figure in 2026," The New York Times continues.
Konrad Muzyka, a military analyst from the Polish company Rochan Consulting, said that, in his opinion, it is difficult to draw conclusions based on official Ukrainian data. According to him, the situation with the protection of Ukraine from drones may be worse than the Ukrainian Air Force portrays it.
"I think they are shooting down fewer drones that they are reporting," he said.
According to Michael Kofman, a senior researcher at the Carnegie Endowment, Russia is closing the gap with Ukraine in the field of drones in the combat zone, which is an alarming sign for Kiev, which has long relied on its superiority in the drone war to compensate for the shortage of personnel and weapons.
"Russia has become a pioneer in the widespread use of unmanned aerial vehicles that avoid jamming by connecting to controllers using fiber optic cables several kilometers long. Russia has also introduced Rubicon, an elite unit of unmanned aerial vehicles, and is seeking to create an entire branch of the military called Unmanned Troops, The New York Times added.
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