Drones are one of the few inventions that have redefined war in a very short time and in a very radical manner. Previously, the use of drones was limited to aerial photography or the hobbyists. However, nowadays, practically all the military forces are suffering the consequences brought by drones, from the generals, through the anti-terrorist strategists, and right down to the soldiers. When drones were first envisaged for peaceful situations—cheap, modifiable, and user-friendly—they weren’t thought to become the most interfering on the new battlefields.
However, the change was not immediate. At first, the drones were almost treated as strange creatures. They were flying for fun without any major goals over farmlands and houses. The perception of drones was so changed that even the Middle East’s extremist groups decided to utilize drones to reinforce their own power.
These groups with limited trials and small bombs turned the aircraft into remote hijacked vehicles that could demolish the armored vehicles and frighten the city dwellers with the noise they can create. To supply these drones rapidly was basically ensured by conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine. However, the real extent of the impacts that drones had on warfare was only visible through the wars in Gaza and Ukraine.
The use of Ukrainian drones is, among others, extremely impressive. FPV drones made out of cheap racing parts that usually cost way less than a typical smartphone have been mighty enough to destroy all kinds of military machines, along with radar systems worth millions of dollars. The soldiers do it by guiding the drone carrying the explosive directly to the trenches or to the open spaces in armored vehicles. According to estimates, most, if not all, of the Russian tanks and armored vehicles stationed at the front lines have been destroyed by these FPV attacks. Through massive 3D printing and citizen-support factories, Ukraine has produced large numbers of these drones, thus providing soldiers in the field with precision firepower that was previously only available to the most advanced militaries.
The development is not limited to that. On June 1, 2025, during Operation Spiderweb, drone assaults into Russia’s deep-territory by Ukraine were executed. Over 40 aircraft, which included bombers, were either damaged or destroyed in the unison raids on several airfields. Self-guided drones equipped with fiber-optic navigation bypassed the hardships and reached the targets that were considered unreachable before. The message was obvious: the dominance of the sky is no longer determined only by the billion-dollar aircraft. The impact can even be made by a pilot in the trenches or a volunteer from a workshop.
At the same time, Russia has been relying on massively produced Shahed drones to carry out terrorist attacks in cities and on infrastructure. However, in contemporary warfare, the victory is now gauged by the criteria of speed, adaptability, and innovation. Even low-cost drones can be highly effective in disrupting, blinding, or destroying their targets.
The attack that occurred on October 7, 2023, near Gaza is a perfect example of this. Minuscule quadcopters carried out the task of disabling cameras, jamming signals, and neutralizing robotic defenses in their vicinity within a few minutes. The work that was once done by heavy artillery or highly-trained commando teams has now been done by off-the-shelf drones that came down from the sky on their own and release systems that were improvised. The advanced armor and missile defense systems that were in place were still vulnerable, and this was a strong indication that when small drones are used smartly, they can rapidly shift the strategic advantage.
Moreover, these situations underline the insufficiencies in the present anti-drone systems. No single method is enough to cover all of the threats. Although protection from the use of interceptors, modern measures in cybersecurity, and missile defense is possible, complete security against drones that are low-cost, high-speed, and in swarms flying through treelines or urban canyons cannot be achieved by any of them alone.
Veterans, through their experiences, refer to “layered defense”: early detection of drones, following them as they move, and lastly, neutralizing them at the very last moment. In places that are crowded with buildings or are densely wooded, where every second counts, people are turning more and more to simpler solutions—like nets or modular interceptors—that can be easily transported and quickly deployed.
The message is very obvious: Today’s domination of the air is not about the sheer firepower of the weapons—it is about the fighter who manages to survive. The usage of drones in warfare is cheap and flexible, and allows for experimentation. Countering drones requires the opposite trait, that is, being adaptable, diverse, and well-prepared under actual combat situations.
The last moments before a drone attack are perhaps the most crucial ones in the entire modern warfare. In modern warfare, the side with the largest armada is not the one that is favored anymore, but rather the one that can act the fastest and utilize its resources most efficiently.