Are Russian Attack Drones & EW Jamming Ukraine’s Drones & Destroying Armored Vehicles?

by Mark Episkopos, Managing Editor, Center for Military Modernization

((From Warrior Staff: Russian EW weapons and unmanned systems captured world attention Russia’s 2014 incursion into Ukraine, yet we have not heard as much about Russian EW and drone attacks in the current Ukraine-Russia War … Perhaps until now. Are Russian drones destroying Ukrainian and Western Armored vehicles? Read this analysis by Warrior’s New Managing Editor, Mark Episkopos))

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By Mark Episkopos, Managing Editor, Center for Military Modernization

(Washington DC) 

When Azerbaijan routed Armenia in the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War, Western military planners took notice. One of the war’s unmistakable lessons was the decisive battlefield impact of drone technology. Azerbaijani forces employed Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 drones and Israeli loitering munitions to devastating effect against Armenian armor, air defense units, and logistics assets. Baku’s robust unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) arsenal translated to an insurmountable advantage in intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) and long-range strike capabilities, enabling Azerbaijani forces to cut off, degrade, and overrun Armenian defensive positions.

No one was in a better position to observe these lessons in real time than Russia. The Kremlin, Armenia’s military ally but also a close partner with Azerbaijan, followed the war since its inception and played a leading role in brokering the negotiated ceasefire that brought it to an end.

Prominent Russian war correspondents and military bloggers who covered the conflict on the ground warned that drones are shaping the battlespace in ways that the Russian high command has not fully grasped, making it easier and cheaper than ever to target, track, and destroy enemy troops and critical infrastructure. But the Russian Defense Ministry, mired in bureaucratic inertia and top-heaviness, did not act on these vital developments in time. Russia’s defense industry showcased highly advanced UAV’s, notably including the Sukhoi S-70 Okhotnik-B heavy combat drone, with much aplomb in Russia’s flagship military expos, but such displays turned out to be a Potemkin village concealing chronic underinvestment in UAV technology research and development and serial production.