Drone production is only part of a broader shift toward networked warfare
Hiroyuki AKITA, Nikkei commentator
June 27, 2026
TOKYO — War is humanity’s greatest tragedy, claiming countless lives, fracturing societies and leaving scars that endure for generations. Yet war is also, in its ironic way, a furnace of invention. Technologies forged in conflict spill into civilian life and, over time, reshape the character of conflict itself.
World War I produced the tank, built to claw through trench lines. World War II brought radar and code-breaking to maturity, altering the course of entire campaigns. For better or worse, nations race to absorb each new wave of battlefield innovation, hoping to turn it to their own advantage. In Ukraine today, that cycle is repeating with startling speed.
Cheap, expendable drones have enabled Ukraine to destroy Russian tanks and even warships, overturning decades of conventional military assumptions. As Russia has responded in kind, unmanned combat has rapidly proliferated, a shift many analysts view as a revolution in modern warfare.
Countries around the world, eager to grasp the technological transformation sweeping the battlefield, are closely studying the war unleashed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Nowhere is that attention more intense than in the Baltic states — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — which lie on Russia’s doorstep and live with an acute sense of peril.
On May 14, I observed Spring Storm, one of Estonia’s largest military exercises. The multinational drill, which runs for about a month from early May, drew forces from more than a dozen nations, including the U.S., Britain and France.
The training grounds lay close to the Russian border, and to guard against hacking we were told to switch off our phones. Before reaching the site, I had expected to see tanks rumbling across fields and fighter jets carving through the sky. Instead, the area reverberated with the metallic whine of drones. The day’s drill focused on unmanned combat, with drones and other systems used for reconnaissance, strikes and electronic disruption.
A British Army soldier monitors the front line using unmanned surveillance equipment during a joint military exercise in Estonia. (Photo by Hiroyuki Akita)
What stood out was the presence of Ukrainian troops, invited so others could learn the latest techniques of drone warfare. “In drones and electronic warfare, we are behind Russia and Ukraine,” said Col. Aron Kalmus of the Estonian Defence Forces, who commanded the exercise. “We have to catch up, and quickly.”
The rapid, radical transformation of front-line combat is visible in a single statistic. Ukraine’s drone production surged from just 1,200 units in 2022 to around 1.7 million in 2024, marking a roughly 1,400-fold increase, according to the Kyiv-based think tank StateWatch. Russia, too, ramped up its production target to 1.4 million units in 2024.
But the deeper transformation lies not in volume alone. A new way of fighting is taking shape, one in which drones are fused into a unified network with ground forces, aircraft and missile units. Electronic warfare, the countermeasure of choice, is advancing just as quickly, creating a relentless contest in which each side races to blind, jam or hijack the other’s unmanned fleets.
One development, however, casts a darker shadow: the role of Pyongyang. North Korea is the only third nation to have sent troops to support Russia on the ground, reportedly more than 10,000 so far, with some analysts warning that another 25,000 to 30,000 could follow.
On Ukraine’s battlefields, North Korean forces are being exposed to some of the most advanced forms of unmanned and electronic warfare currently in use. In return for its troop deployment, Pyongyang is believed to have received Russian assistance in drone and electronic warfare technology, as well as technical support for reconnaissance satellites and missile development, according to assessments by South Korean intelligence and others. North Korea may be honing its ability to control drone swarms and counter enemy drones through sophisticated electronic warfare systems.
North Korea’s support for Russia extends well beyond manpower. It has shipped vast quantities of ammunition and even its KN-23, a short-range ballistic missile closely modeled on Russia’s Iskander system. Ukrainian intelligence now warns that live-fire data from those launches may be shared between Moscow and Pyongyang and used to enhance the missile’s accuracy.
“There is a danger that the North Korean military is absorbing the most advanced ways of fighting from Russia ahead of every other nation,” said Shinae Lee, a researcher at Japan’s Sasakawa Peace Foundation who in late May published an analysis of the risks of the deepening military partnership. “For the security of Asia, that is an extraordinarily grave threat.”
What unsettles the wider world is mounting signs that Russia is also sharing its combat experience in Ukraine with the Chinese military. Moscow relies heavily on China for the semiconductors and machine tools essential to sustaining mass arms production. Training assistance, it seems, is part of the repayment.
In June 2025, the Kyiv Post reported that Russia planned to host and train some 600 Chinese military personnel by year’s end, drawing directly on lessons from real combat to strengthen China’s ability to counter NATO-standard weapons systems. The Chinese military, for its part, secretly invited Russian personnel for training in the latter half of last year, according to Reuters.
China already commands one of the world’s largest shares of drone production and possesses formidable operational know-how. In March, it demonstrated Atlas, a drone swarm system capable of coordinating nearly 100 drones for missions including reconnaissance and attack. Combat data and operational experience gained in Ukraine could help speed China’s military transformation.
Sadly, there is little indication that Russia’s invasion will end soon and peace will return to Ukraine. As military innovation continues to evolve on the battlefield, the U.S., Europe, China and North Korea will likely race to draw lessons from it.
The countries most at risk of falling behind are Japan and South Korea, both situated close to China and North Korea. Tokyo and Seoul have refrained from full-fledged, direct military support for Ukraine, and their security exchanges with Kyiv remain limited compared with those of the U.S. and Europe.
Yet there is still much they can do, including deepening cooperation in civilian drone technology. What is important is to see Ukraine not merely as a recipient of aid, but as a partner whose battlefield experience offers valuable insights into the future of warfare.