When war broke out, countless companies in Ukraine refocused their efforts on augmenting drone hardware and software to gather intelligence, execute counterattacks, and deliver vital resources to the frontline.
All of this has brought into focus just how quickly DefenceTech solutions must be adapted to remain resilient against enemy capabilities. In today’s high-tech battlefield, the threat is no longer determined by troops on the ground, but by remotely controlled systems overhead. Russian UAV attacks carrying grenades, improvised explosives, anti-tank mines, and rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) warheads have continued to intensify over the course of the war. Therefore, Ukraine’s defence industry further expanded to focus on the other side of the drone technology coin: Anti-drone technologies to protect the Ukrainian frontlines from Russian attacks.
The evolution of tactics on the battlefield in Ukraine has resulted in a once-in-a-generation shift for the European defence industry. However, just as military tactics have required rapid change, so too will peacekeeping operations across Ukraine and the rest of Europe.
DefenceTech becomes PeaceTech
In the Kherson region, where Ukrainian casualties have been highest, short-range drones are responsible for 70 per cent of all civilian deaths inflicted by Russia. There are further reports that 80 per cent of all casualties in the war are drone-related. However, Electronic Warfare (EW) technologies are being employed day in and day out to save the lives of civilians and Ukrainian military personnel. For instance, Kvertus, a Ukrainian developer and manufacturer of anti-drone systems for military use, has saved approximately 100,000 lives since 2022 using its EW technology. These unique Ukrainian-built systems can detect radio frequencies of incoming drones up to 30km away, electronically jam and then neutralise them without compromising friendly drones nearby.
EW is not a new technology; many legacy systems and those outside of Ukraine use white noise to knock out everything and anything in the surrounding area. However, the advancement of drone warfare in Ukraine means that using white noise would incur too much ‘friendly fire’. Many existing EW systems donated to Ukraine have a short lifespan on the frontline. Either they are too power hungry, too complex to use, or they only work on a handful of frequencies so don’t offer the right protection. Enemy forces will not be limited to the commercially available frequencies. It is war, and the constant game of cat and mouse has seen the likes of Kvertus innovate to not only combine detection and suppression systems, but also cover almost 6000 different frequencies and suppress drones at the protocol level.
With this system, operators don’t need to be on the frontline –they don’t even need to be in the same country. The system has been designed so that it will automatically detect, switch frequencies and suppress enemy drones without any human intervention.
In an initiative called ‘Project Atlas’, Kvertus, with the help of the Ukrainian government, is looking to deploy this technology across the entire 1300km border between Ukraine and Russia, proving once again that technology, rather than boots on the ground, will ensure Ukraine’s security. Still, even when peace is finally achieved, the next colossal challenge facing Ukraine will be recovering from the devastation of war and then maintaining this peace long-term with limited resources.
The path forward will be transforming the DefenceTech that has proved invaluable for Ukraine’s survival throughout the war into PeaceTech that will safeguard the country’s future. These EW technologies can be implemented across Ukraine’s cities and critical infrastructure to shield civilians from nefarious actors and future drone attacks.
Not just a ‘Ukraine problem’
We all witnessed the widespread unease sparked by the unauthorised drones spotted flying over US airbases in Suffolk and Norfolk at the end of last year, with suspicions falling to the incursions being the work of a ‘state actor’. Now imagine the chaos that would’ve unfolded had these drones carried out a real-world attack on the airbase.
It is no longer a distant, hypothetical threat to Europe. Western nations remain startlingly unprepared for the new phase of terror enabled by individually targeted drones, with next to no protections against drones flying into packed stadium crowds, high-rise office buildings or the UK’s major power stations. This is in spite of the constant and clear demonstrations of their catastrophic impact in Ukraine’s cities and towns. Last year, there were discussions between Baltic and Nordic nations to draw up plans to develop a ‘drone wall’ to help defend borders against Russia, and while those nations geographically closer to Moscow understand the threat, they should be looking at what technology has been successfully deployed against Russian forces over the last three years.
The need for anti-drone peacekeeping technologies stretches far beyond Ukraine’s borders. It is now a fundamental component of European national security, just as cybersecurity protections are. With the right commercial opportunities, technologies engineered in Ukraine can be expanded to protect the rest of Europe from this rapidly evolving threat.
To do so, we need to see improved private investment opportunities for Ukranian innovation and more effective cross-border collaboration in the European DefenceTech ecosystem. Ukraine has, in many ways, acted as a highly effective testbed for these critical technologies, bringing the future defence capabilities Europe desperately needs into reach. Therefore the incentives to fund this innovation through private investment and philanthropic initiatives are clear. Even more importantly, the procurement process needs to be reformed so that the companies pioneering these solutions can deploy them at scale. Ukraine sets a great example in this regard, with clear pathways for startups to gain access to government contracts and fast-track innovation to the frontlines.
In the age of drone warfare, these EW systems could form the foundations of a European-led peacekeeping operation. We have an opportunity to learn from Ukraine’s grim experience with incessant drone attacks and access technology which has a proven track record of saving thousands of lives. However, this new reality must first be accepted by governments and defence primes across Europe – only then can we seek to address it.
Andriy Dovbenko, founder and principal of UK-Ukraine TechExchange
Comment: Anti-drone tech will be crucial to lasting peace in Europe
It would be interesting to know what proportion of Ukrainian drones were Chinese built or had Chinese components in them. We need European industries...