Ukrainian Military Commander: NATO Soldiers Are Not Ready To Face Drone War

JAKARTA - The Ukrainian military commander considers the NATO armed forces to be not ready for a modern drone war.

Kyiv strives to stay ahead of the enemy, use artificial intelligence, deploy more ground drones and test lasers to bring down Russian unmanned aerial vehicles.

The head of the Ukrainian Unmanned System Forces Colonel Vadym Sukharevskyi revealed the progress of drone warfare since the start of the invasion in 2022, and the ways used to overturn existing war doctrines.

"From what I've seen and heard, not a single NATO soldier is ready to fight the drone attack," Sukharevskyi told Reuters in a recent interview.

He said NATO should recognize the economic benefits of drones, whose manufacturing costs are often much cheaper than conventional weaponry needed to knock them down.

"That's just basic mathematics. How much does a missile that shoots down Shahed (drone) (Russia)? And how much does it cost to deploy a ship, plane, and air defense system to shoot it?," he continued.

Long-range drones cost just a few thousand dollars for the most basic feed model, although Shahed's attack drone is estimated to cost tens of thousands.

Air defense interceptor missiles usually have a price of six or seven digits of US dollars and many countries only have limited stock, so their use is not very economical.

Sukharevskyi's remarks came as several NATO members in Europe stepped up defense spending to prepare for the war if the conflict in Ukraine protracted or increased. With the weakening US support for Ukraine and Europe, these efforts are getting more intensive.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, there has been a major increase in drone use.

Ukraine said it made 2.2 million small First Person View (FPV) drones and 100,000 larger long-range drones by 2024. Russia previously estimated it would make 1.4 million FPV drones by the same year.

"Currently, even the Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said that more than 60% of targets were destroyed by drones," said Sukharevskyi.

"The only question is how the tactics of its use will develop, and after that, the aspect of technology," he continued.