USF Commander Sukharevskiy stated that no NATO army is ready to resist the "drone invasion"
NATO’s armed forces are not ready for modern warfare using drones, warned Colonel Vadim Sukharevsky, Commander of the Unmanned Systems Forces.
NATO’s armed forces are not ready for modern warfare using drones, warned Colonel Vadim Sukharevsky, Commander of the Unmanned Systems Forces.
«From what I see and hear, no NATO army is ready to withstand a cascade of drones», — Sukharevskiy said in a recent interview with Reuters.
According to him, NATO must recognize the economic advantage of drones, which are often much cheaper to create than the conventional weapons needed to shoot them down.
«It’s just basic math. How much does a missile cost to shoot down a Shahed? And how much does it cost to deploy a ship, a plane, and an air defense system to shoot at it?», — asks the USF commander.
Long-range drones can cost as little as a few thousand dollars for the simplest decoy models, while Shahed strike drones are priced in the tens of thousands. Air defense interceptor missiles typically cost six or seven figures in dollars, and many countries have limited supplies, making their use extremely uneconomical.
«Now even the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine says that over 60% of targets are destroyed by drones. The only question is how the tactics of their use will develop, and then the technological aspect,» said Sukharevsky.
According to Sukharevskiy, Ukraine has successfully shot down drones during tests using a laser, adding that the goal is to use laser systems in combat, although he did not specify a timeframe.
Sukharevskiy said his units are now using a drone that can carry two FPV drones up to 70 km away before releasing them and acting as a relay station for their communications.
According to his estimates, thousands of unmanned ground vehicles are operating at the front.
The USF commander believes that at least half of Ukrainian drones on the front now use AI systems in one way or another, and that most drones participating in combat operations will eventually use this system. He believes that the final decision to destroy a target should still be made by a human, not a machine.
Vadym Sukharevskyi acknowledged that Ukraine is unable to fully meet the needs of strike drones for ammunition, which is usually supplied separately to the drones, but did not go into details. According to him, some units have begun to produce ammunition independently, and one brigade can produce 6,000-10,000 rounds of ammunition per month.
«If it weren’t for drones, things would be much worse. Drones are what allows us to give an asymmetric response (when) the enemy is bigger, stronger, and attacks», — Sukharevskiy notes.
He previously reported that the Ukrainian Armed Forces' Unmanned Systems Forces are testing a domestic laser weapon, the «Trident.» According to him, this laser can shoot down planes at an altitude of more than 2 km.
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