Since Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine, military planners, world leaders and citizens have been piecing through the devastation to draw lessons from what has turned out to be the biggest war in Europe since 1945.
Here are some of the ways in which it’s already transforming warfare.
1. Go Small
Instead of tanks and planes, nimble drones have emerged as the conflict’s weapon of choice. They overwhelm hulking tanks, kill troops and have allowed both sides to wreak havoc behind enemy lines. Ukraine’s use of inexpensive uninhabited maritim
e vehicles (UMVs) to target Russia’s Black Sea Fleet has popularized remote-controlled weaponry by sea. And the primacy of drones has set off another kind of competition: the race to disable them through signal jamming.
Other countries are taking note. According to industry estimates, the global drone market is expected to reach $260 billion by 2030, growing almost tenfold from the year before Russia’s full-scale invasion. Ukraine said Friday it shot down two dozen Shahed-type drones overnight launched from Russia and occupied Crimea.
Unmanned crafts give commanders on both sides an aerial view of the battlefield, allowing them to monitor the enemy’s movements in real time — which is part of why the conflict has turned into a war of attrition. That means that, for all this technological advancement, World War I-style trench warfare supported by barrages of artillery has prevailed along the front line. That’s required the adversaries to churn out mass quantities of ammunition — with more or less success.
2. Pick a Side
The war in Ukraine has forged a more bipolar world. It sent Sweden and Finland running into NATO’s embrace after they had for so long resisted joining the alliance out of fear of antagonizing Russia.
That decision came to symbolize how the world that three decades ago hailed the end of history is again descending into the old divisions between West and rest. Ukraine also renewed its push to join both NATO and the European Union, after its prospects had for years been on ice.
