During joint military exercises in Estonia last May, Ukrainian drone pilots achieved something that stunned NATO commanders: they effectively wiped out two NATO battalions in a single day - before the alliance could even deploy its own unmanned systems. The exercise laid bare a gap between Ukraine's real-world drone warfare experience and NATO's institutional readiness.
The incident illustrates a broader problem, Elina Ribakova and Lucas Risinger argue in Foreign Affairs, as "Hvylya" reports. Neither the United States nor Europe has substantively incorporated drones into doctrine, training, and institutional frameworks. Ukraine, by contrast, has made unmanned systems the backbone of its military operations.
The numbers tell the story. By early 2025, Ukrainian soldiers were using drones in 80 to 85 percent of all frontline strikes. Ukraine's annual drone output dwarfs that of the United States and Europe combined. Ukrainian forces field first-person-view drones that cost $500 to $2,000 per unit, allowing them to hit tens of thousands of targets each month.
More than 200 Ukrainian companies are now developing unmanned ground systems alone - a pace of development without parallel in NATO countries. Ukraine also fields maritime drones that have effectively expelled Russia's navy from the western Black Sea, and it has developed autonomous navigation that works without GPS in heavily jammed environments, swarm coordination allowing multiple drones to attack with minimal operator input, and fiber-optic control that is effectively immune to Russian electronic warfare.
The authors argue that the Estonian exercise should serve as a wake-up call. Europe is currently spending hundreds of billions of euros to rebuild its conventional defense capabilities and develop technologies that Ukraine is already using in combat. Rather than duplicating those efforts, they say, Europe should draw on Ukrainian expertise - especially as the continent takes on more responsibility for its own defense without the US backstop it has long relied on.
Also read: How cheap Ukrainian drones are transforming NATO's understanding of modern armor.