NATO countries not ready for war with massive use of drones - Ukrainian commander
The armed forces of NATO countries do not have sufficient readiness to withstand the massive use of drones. This was stated by Vadym Sukharevskyi, Commander of the Unmanned Systems Forces of Ukraine, in an interview with Reuters.
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According to him, no single army in the Alliance is able to effectively counter the "cascade of drones". He also stressed that NATO should recognise the economic advantage of drones, as their production is much cheaper than traditional countermeasures.
"This is basic mathematics. How much does a missile that shoots down a Shahed (Russian drone) cost? And how much does it cost to deploy a ship, an aircraft and an air defence system to shoot at it," Sukharevsky explained.
Sukharevsky noted that today Ukraine destroys more than 60% of enemy targets using drones. In addition, Ukrainian forces have already used laser weapons to fight drones, and they plan to integrate them into combat operations.
Ukrainian FPV drones. Illustration: The Foundation BackAndAlive
Ukraine is actively developing the use of artificial intelligence, increasing the number of ground drones and testing new systems to destroy Russian UAVs. The commander also reminded that Ukrainian units have long been using "mother drones", which can deliver FPV drones up to 70 km away and work as repeater stations for them.
Thousands of ground drones are operating at the front, which reduces the number of soldiers in dangerous areas. At the same time, the parties to the war are actively using electronic warfare, which has led to the development of automated drones.
Sukharevsky emphasised that the decision to strike should be made by a person, not an algorithm. According to his estimates, half of Ukraine's drones already use artificial intelligence, and in the future, most combat drones will be integrated with AI.
Source: Reuters
