Ukraine’s Robotic Boat, Drone Tactics Carries Lessons for U.S.

HONOLULU — As the United States continues to weigh observations from Ukraine’s stand against an unprovoked Russian invasion, one of its most prominent lessons may be how Ukrainians are utilizing uncrewed vessels.

Curry Wright, science and technology advisor to the commander of Security Assistance Group – Ukraine and deployed with the Defense Innovation Unit to Kyiv and Ukraine, said, “We’ve all noticed that the Ukraine has been extremely innovative in terms of employing uncrewed aerial systems, especially first person video (FVP) drones,” speaking at a panel discussion at the National Defense Industrial Association’s Pacific Operational Science and Technology Conference March 5.

First person video drones — an unmanned aerial vehicle with a camera that can wirelessly transmit video — is “a change in warfare as we know it,” Wright said. Ukraine is employing them to offset its lack of 155mm shells and rocket artillery and recently announced a plan to produce 1 million drones in the next year.

Ukraine’s drone employment provides a lesson in strategy, combining expensive, exquisite ones with the expendables. There is “absolutely an opportunity for us to learn that we can probably combine” the two, he said.

The United States produces mostly exquisite systems, he said, and combining them with attritable systems could provide an opportunity to defeat enemies. 

Using the example of the Iranian Shahed drone, Wright said exquisite systems used to counter the Shahed like the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System are “highly effective … but if you look at cost per shot of NASAMs and the Patriot [missile system] … we’re shooting multimillion dollar missiles at the Shahed. From a defense perspective, [there’s certainly] an opportunity to pair exquisite/attritable capabilities to defeat what the enemy is using against us.”

An exquisite/attritable strategy applies to the fact that munitions such as HIMARS are difficult to produce with long lead times, he said. What Ukraine has done is “they’ve been innovative in a way that they’re 3D printing and/or producing with internal components FPV drones, they’re mating those with explosives or munitions that we give them and they’re employing them to great effect.”

What Ukraine has done with uncrewed platforms over the past two years has been “a dramatic impact with very simple platforms,” Johannes Schonberg, director of NavalX Northwest Tech Bridge and co-founder of the PNW Missions Acceleration Center, said. “They’re very custom tailored, not exquisite in the least.” FPV drones are tele-operated with simple navigation, he said. 

Army Col. Chae Gales, assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, technology and logistics, said as the Ukrainian population dwindles with each conflict, the use of uncrewed systems will become increasingly important, “unless they can regenerate fighting power through human fighting power in a very short period of time. We can’t incubate a human being in six to 12 months, so the use of unmanned systems will probably be increasing near term.”

Observing Ukraine’s use of uncrewed systems has also developed and exposed new constraints in the supply chain, Schonberg said. “So if it’s FPV drones in production, you figure out how to work with partners to stand up that production supply chain to strengthen those supply chains. Those have to be dealt with. You identify the partner’s industry base, and you figure out who’s going to produce those at scale? And I think Ukrainians have done that pretty effectively.”

Ukraine has also used its MAGURA V5 unmanned surface vessels in the Black Sea against Russia for reconnaissance or as kamikaze drones. Some 10 Russian vessels have been severely damaged so far.

Lessons learned from Ukraine can also be applied in the Indo-Pacific, Gales said — noting unscrewed systems will be a “critical capability” in the region. “If you want to extend out the range of defense for an island nation or country within the Indo-Pacific area of responsibility, having large bodies of water, although very difficult for logistics and sustainment, can be very helpful for extending out that defensive perimeter.”

Wright said Taiwan should also take note of the cost incurred by Russia at the hands of Ukraine’s unmanned surface vessels. “So I think that’s something that they should look at, but also the economic impact of long range drone strikes into Russia proper — oil refineries, natural gas refineries — there’s a toll there that I think we really don’t fully understand yet. The Russians are certainly getting beat up pretty hard by unmanned aerial systems.”

Wright said Ukraine’s unmanned systems directorate has been directed to establish a drone service, being only the second nation in the world to stand up a drone force. 

“And so the plan there is for brigades of drone operators, each brigade with three battalions, and their plan is to continually produce up to a million drones per year and use those drones to offset the lack of artillery until they win the war,” Wright said.

Topics: International, Robotics and Autonomous Systems