Drones in modern warfare

Solly Rakgomo | Monday June 30, 2025 09:41

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones, have evolved from niche tools for surveillance to versatile instruments for precision strikes, psychological warfare, and strategic disruption.

Their affordability, accessibility, and adaptability have democratised advanced warfare capabilities, enabling both state and non-state actors to challenge traditional military powers, thereby redefining asymmetric warfare. However, the term ‘UAV’ or ‘drone’ may appear to be a recent phenomenon, but its roots date back to the 19th century. Drawing on examples from the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War, the India-Pakistan escalations of 2025, and Ukraine’s drone attacks on Russian air bases on June 1, 2025, we will try to understand how drones have redefined the battlefield, altered power dynamics, and introduced new challenges for defense strategies. Drones, or UAVs, have an intriguing history that dates back over a century.

The earliest recorded use of UAV occurred when Austria launched explosive-laden balloons against Venice in 1849. Thereafter, in 1917, the Ruston Proctor Aerial Target became the first pilotless winged aircraft in history.

During the interwar period, UAVs were employed for reconnaissance and target practice; both the Germans and the US worked on radio-controlled pilotless technology.

During the Cold War period, there were significant advancements in UAV technology, primarily focusing on surveillance. Modern drone warfare, characterize by real-time control and precision, began to take shape during the Vietnam War. The US Air Force deployed the Ryan Model 147 Lightning Bug, a reconnaissance drone, starting in 1964. These drones conducted over 3, 400 sorties, gathering intelligence over North Vietnam and China, marking the first large-scale use of UAVs for reconnaissance in combat.

After Israeli success over the Syrian Air Force in 1982, the outlook of UAVs changed from mere ‘expensive and unreliable toys’ to the dawn of modern warfare. The UAVs again proved their worth in the Gulf War of 1991, and since then, UAVs have become an inextricable part of modern-day conflicts.

The Nagorno-Karabakh

War (2020): The Turning PointAn important turning point in the use of drone technology in conventional warfare occurred during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Azerbaijan’s successful deployment of drones, especially Israeli Harop loitering munitions and Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2s, was primarily responsible for its resounding win. Drones from Azerbaijan destroyed 40% of Armenia’s artillery and nearly 50% of its air defense systems in the early hours of the conflict, giving the country air superiority and allowing ground forces to advance with little opposition.

Azerbaijan’s drone strategy was successful because of both strategic integration and cutting-edge technology. To overwhelm Armenian defenses, drones were coordinated with electronic warfare (EW) equipment and artillery, showcasing the effectiveness of networked warfare. To demoralise Armenian soldiers and influence public opinion, Azerbaijan released expertly made footage of drone strikes, which had an equally important psychological impact. Armenia, however, demonstrated the vulnerability of conventional forces to contemporary drone warfare by failing to modify its air defenses, depending instead on weapons like the Strela-10 and Osa, which proved useless against the TB2’s standoff capabilities. This fight highlighted that drones are not only auxiliary instruments but may significantly affect the result of warfare when employed successfully, causing militaries around the world to reevaluate their air defense strategies.

The India-Pakistan Conflict

(2025): Drones are the new normal.The May 7-10, 2025 escalations marked a new normal in India-Pakistan relations. For the first time, drones dominated the entire warfare. As India launched Operation Sindoor, triggered by the Pahalgam massacre, the operation was aimed at hitting terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). After the initial air strikes by India, the Pakistani side launched Operation Bunyan Al Marsoos. During the escalation, it is worth noting that drones were widely employed by both sides. India used precision Kamikaze drones like the Israeli-made Harop to detect and destroy Pakistani air defense systems, along with the IAI Harpy for Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD) tactics.

Several videos emerged on the internet from Pakistan where the sound of the loitering munitions could be heard, followed by the explosion, creating fear psychosis among the public. For tactical reconnaissance and surveillance, India relied on its domestically produced Nagastra-1, which can also be used in kamikaze mode along with the Israeli IAI Searcher. Pakistan typically relied on Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 drones for short-range precision strikes and reconnaissance. For long-range attacks, Pakistan used the Chinese CH-4 combat UAV and Turkish Songar quadrotor drones in swarms with cheaper FPV drones that could protect the UAVs with warheads from India’s multilayered air defense. There are differing claims about the number of drones deployed by Pakistan, but it can range between 600 and 900, along with 350-400 UAVs. Pakistan also used decoy radars to lure Harop drones and shot them down when they descended to lower altitudes, demonstrating adaptive countermeasures. The conflict foregrounded the strategic use of drones for both offensive and defensive purposes, as well as their role in psychological operations, with both sides leveraging drone footage for propaganda.

Ukraine’s drone attacks on Russian air bases (2025): Redefining asymmetric warfare

Ukraine’s drone strikes over five different Russian air bases on June 1, 2025, came as a surprise, and it left the strategic community pondering over its execution and planning. Ukraine’s Operation “Pavutyna,” or “Spider Web,” was a meticulously planned operation that showcased the transformative potential of drones in asymmetric warfare. Apart from power asymmetry, the cost-to-damage parameter was something exceptional. Ukraine used low-cost First Person View (FPV) drones mounted on trucks, which were remotely guided to hit the Russian bases. The trucks with explosive-laden drones concealed in them were smuggled to Russia and were placed near the bases as deep as 4, 000 km from the border and then launched in a coordinated way to hit several Russian strategic aircraft, like nuclear-capable Tu-95 and Tu-22 bombers.

Exposing the vulnerability of the Russian air defense system, the drone strikes inflicted massive damage on the Russian attack fleet and proved the might of drones with tactical expertise. Given the power asymmetry between the two nations, drones can give weaker nations a hope of deterrence against big powers. Further, deploying drones to hit high-value assets raises concerns over the traditional air defense systems, which were in shambles as Ukraine successfully achieved its objective to hit Russian high-value targets. The sophistication and covert nature of the attack also foreground the gaps in Russia’s preparedness; perhaps the Soviet-era air defense is useless in countering modern high-tech targets.