War never changes…or does it? Drones playing new roles in Ukraine war

This article originally appeared in the June'23 magazine issue of Electronic Specifier Design – see ES's Magazine Archives for more featured publications.

Leading this change, however, is not some far-flung concept like super soldiers, nor next generation plasma rifles, but a technology that has been present in conflict for over 100 years: drones.

Despite the layman first having perhaps heard the term ‘drones’ in the 2000s, they first came onto the scene during WW1 where A. M. Low, now dubbed ‘the father of radio guidance systems’, helped develop the first pilotless aircraft – a creation that would go on to further inspire development into what we now deem an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV).

Due to technological innovations, the use of drones in conflicts has increased – with their first large scale deployment being the Vietnam war in a largely reconnaissance capacity. As time went on, offensive capabilities began to be added, and now drones alone are beginning to change the tides of conflicts, with the devices credited with being the key component in Armenia’s defeat in the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War in 2020.

But one use that they have largely underutilised for is in logistics and support. Yet, as any General will tell you, these are the arteries of any army. Forbes has suggested that the Ukraine war has ushered in the ‘age of drone warfare’, and although still in its infancy, will this conflict see the role of drones expand?

Drone usage in Ukraine

“With the advent of Ukraine, air dominance from 10,000 feet down is now dominated by small drones,” Draganfly CEO Cameron Chell tells Electronic Specifier.

Draganfly is a drone company that has been operating for over 20 years. Because of its longevity in the industry, the company has seen, and been a part of, some big developments with drones. In 1998 it released the first commercialised quadrotor UAV; it was the first company to put a thermal camera, stabilisers and a video camera, alongside other additions, on board a drone, and in 2009 its drone helped a Canadian Police Forensic Unit in a homicide case. Perhaps its this experience that saw the company’s drones be called upon for use in Ukraine. 

“So, we were contacted by an NGO [non-governmental organisation] who was struggling to get supplies into besieged cities, and that was because fleet of ambulances were being confiscated, or shot or couldn't get through roadblocks or such,” says Chell. “And so, their concept was to use drones to fly supplies, in particular insulin, into the cities. We donated three drones to experiment with and that worked out quite well. Since then, that NGO and other organisations bought delivery drones to provide medical support.”

The drones doing missions such as these are big, bulky machines like the widely-known Predator drone which has a wingspan of 55ft, is 27ft long, 6.9ft high, and carries a payload of up to 450lbs. Draganfly’s most popular drone “is about the size of a coffee table” with a 24lbs payload (without camera, sensors or general attachments etc), and its largest drone has eight blades on it and can carry a payload of about 67lbs.

This goes to show that the use of drones in a conflict is no longer limited to the multi-million-dollar machines that governments build. By August 2022, the Ukrainian military was estimated to have more than 6,000 commercial drones in their hands, far surpassing the number of combat drones made available from countries such as the US and Turkey. Ukrainian soldiers are even known to rig detachable, small explosives to these drones to drop on enemy forces, utilise them as kamikazes, or for reconnaissance.

Yet, some situations, like in the city of Bakhmut, mean that these smaller drones, or even the ones provided by Draganfly, would not work. “In a situation like Bakhmut, you probably wouldn't see these drones because it's just too kinetically active. And so, the drones in that area are high value targets just because it's so active,” says Chell.

Smaller drones, therefore, have their drawbacks over the bigger, more costly units developed by governments. With a smaller frame, weight often ranging in the double kilogram figures, a max flight height of around 8,000ft, speed of around 60-70kph, and battery life around the 30-minute mark, these small drones fly low enough to be hit with small-arms fire, are susceptible to electronic warfare jamming, and may run out of battery before they complete a mission and can be brought back to the controller. For more sophisticated drones like the ones made by Draganfly, it may prove too costly to risk using them in this way.

“So maybe not right in the super kinetic areas, but certainly along the frontlines, you're now starting to see drones being used for things like resupply, and absolutely for things like surveillance and such,” says Chell.

But it is the sophisticated sensor attachments that make these drones suitable for use in warzones, even if it is further from the frontline. Draganfly is a custom order company, and it works with customers to make drones to their specifications. One of the drones that was used to aid the police in the homicide investigation had all the tools to make it fit for another purpose – mine detection. 

These types of drones use a number of different systems to help troops on the ground clear the land of mines. A drone will take off, fly to a height of 8,000ft, and map the land below to search for mines. “They can see where trails had been walked, they can see where there's a brush that's been disturbed, they can see where there's roads that are more used than other roads,” Chell explains.

This is because drones like Draganfly’s are equipped with stabilised RGB cameras with 10x zoom which can capture detailed footage of the ground below and spot inconsistencies as well as hyperspectral sensors which looks at objects using a vast portion of the electromagnetic spectrum to enable identification of the materials that make up a scanned object. Thermal infrared can also spot heat discrepancies in different areas of the ground and even penetrate the ground looking for mines that emit a pulse – recording the echoes that result from subsurface objects. All this data is then ‘mapped’ by Draganfly’s software and compiled into one dataset for analysis. This paints a detailed picture for officials who can implement strategies from the analysed data.

Utilising drones in this way means that not only are humans now freed up from the dangerous job of mine sweeping, but drones can complete the task much quicker and, sensors permitting, much more effectively.

Drones in the future

As mentioned earlier, drone use in warfare is still in its infancy. Yet broader developments are already on the horizon which could further increase their applicability. As AI has reclaimed its place in the public imagination with the explosion of the likes of ChatGPT, its future applications have many thinking about what it can add to these unmanned aerial vehicles.

Imagine, instead of sending the drone up to collect data for you to collate and analyse later, AI analyses the drone feed in real-time. The additional insights gained in a reconnaissance flight, or the time saved clearing a mind field could prove decisive in some situations.

“It’s certainly not at the point where you fly a mission and you know, the computer brain site says, ‘Oh, this is a T35 tank mine’. It's not there yet. The primary reliance is on the mapping and human interpretation stuff,” Chell explains. “But it is moving there very, very quickly.”