Western Nations Urged to Adopt Ukraine’s Drone Warfare Model

Western countries facing increasing aerial threats should prioritize a faster, cheaper, and battle-tested approach to drone warfare modeled after Ukraine’s successes, experts are advising.

During the Warsaw Security Forum on September 29-30, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy proposed a “joint, truly reliable shield” against Russian aerial attacks to NATO partners, offering Kyiv’s expertise in building such a defense. This comes as several European nations have recently experienced suspicious drone activity near critical infrastructure, prompting the European Union to consider a defensive “wall” against drones. The increasing sophistication and prevalence of drone technology presents a growing challenge to traditional defense strategies.

Analysts emphasize the limitations of simply stockpiling countermeasures. “No one should be thinking they can store millions of drones [or countermeasures], they can’t just store them in a warehouse, and even if they did, they shouldn’t expect them to be useful given how quickly things are evolving,” stated Scott Boston, senior defense analyst at RAND. He added that the Ukrainian model is “cheaper, faster and being live-tested against an active adversary,” providing valuable insights into electronic warfare techniques. Ukraine anticipates its drone and missile production sector will reach $35 billion by 2026, with 40% of deployed weapons manufactured locally or with local company participation. For more information on the evolving landscape of drone warfare, see the Council on Foreign Relations’ Defense and Security page.

Following recent drone incursions, Poland and Denmark have already begun collaborating with Ukrainian experts to improve their troop training. Yevgeniya Gaber, non-resident senior fellow at Atlantic Council, believes that direct knowledge transfer, including visits to Ukraine to observe counter-drone systems in combat, is crucial. Yesterday, Denmark and Ukraine signed an agreement allowing Ukrainian defense firms to establish joint production in Denmark, facilitating technology exchange. The EU has also committed €2 billion to drones with Ukraine, a move that could boost Ukrainian manufacturing and provide the bloc with access to proven technology. This collaboration could also lead to co-developing new systems with Ukrainian engineers, as discussed in a recent Department of Defense statement.

Officials say further partnerships will likely focus on direct industrial cooperation and investment in Ukrainian capabilities to increase production of effective systems.