NATO armed forces are unprepared for modern drone warfare, according to Colonel Vadym Sukharevskyi, the commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces. 

“From what I see and hear, not a single NATO army is ready to resist the cascade of drones,” Sukharevskyi told Reuters in an interview.

Sukharevskyi stressed that NATO must recognize the economic advantages of drones, which are significantly cheaper than traditional weapons systems used to intercept them.

“It’s just elementary mathematics. How much does a missile that shoots down a (Russian) Shahed (drone) cost? And how much does it cost to deploy a ship, a plane and an air defence system to fire at it?” — Sukharevskyi explained.

He also emphasized that over 60% of targets are destroyed by drones.

Sukharevskyi also revealed that Ukraine has already used laser weapons to combat enemy drones and plans to integrate them into combat operations, though he did not disclose any details.

Ukraine tries to outpace the enemy, making significant strides in drone warfare, deploying AI, expanding its use of ground drones, and even testing lasers to counter Russian UAVs. 

Sukharevskyi added that Ukrainian forces are now using a mothership drone that can carry two FPV drones up to 70 km. The mothership then acts as a relay station.

Thousands of ground-based drones are operating on the front lines, reducing the number of soldiers deployed to high-risk areas, or for logistics operations, according to Vadym Sukharevskiy.

Both Ukrainian and Russian forces are heavily relying on electronic warfare to disrupt drone communications, leading to a surge in the use of automated drones. 

This, in turn, has led to a boom in the use of drones with automated guidance—such drones, after the operator selects a target, independently carry out the attack thanks to artificial intelligence.

Sukharevskiy stressed that the final decision to strike should remain with a human, not an algorithm.

According to his estimates, at least half of Ukrainian drones already use artificial intelligence systems, and in the future, most combat drones will be integrated with AI.

Militarnyi recently reported that Ukraine plans to quadruple the production of long-range kamikaze drones, bringing their output to several thousand per month.