The "Pandora's Box" of the war in Ukraine: how drones of the Ukrainian Armed Forces beat the West, — The Economist
The Switchblade-300 drones have proven effective in the war against terrorists in Afghanistan and Iran and are a high-tech weapon that gives a stronger adversary an advantage against a weaker one, explained The Economist media analysts. Ukraine has shown that for a lower price and with simpler technologies, it is possible to "spam" the battlefield with devices capable of destroying important targets.
Drones of the Armed Forces can cost $800 or $20,000, but not hundreds of thousands or millions, like their counterparts in the West, the media explained. Manufacturers have tested the capabilities of devices on the battlefield, quickly update and repair them, receiving "feedback" from fighters and using cheap components. The main goal is for the drones to perform the required functions.
The events at the front should have shown the Western customers of arms that the experience of Ukraine should be adopted, since the war requires massiveness and cheapness, and not overspending for the sake of technology. "It's like choosing between a BMW and a Skoda Octavia. The BMW is faster and more comfortable, but it won't really help you if your task is to give everyone cars," Eduard Lysenko, a representative of the Brave1 platform, quoted the media as saying.
The Economist spoke with Ukrainian fighters, as well as representatives of the arms industry. It turned out that the Switchblade-300, which appeared on the battlefield in 2022, showed a number of shortcomings: it was expensive, vulnerable to EW and ineffective (it did not even break the glass in the car). Then Ukraine began to mass-produce cheap UAVs costing several hundred dollars, which covered the battlefield.
At the same time, they sometimes borrowed the experience of the Russian Federation, as happened with the "Blyskavka" drone, built of plywood and foam plastic, but with the ability to carry 8 kg of explosives for 40 km. Then came the drones that managed the "Web" operation and blew up planes at the airfields of the Russian Federation, and ground robotic platforms for $10,000-20,000, which is cheaper than Western counterparts.
The interlocutors of the media explained that such progress in the conditions of a real war has not yet been borrowed by Western manufacturers and defense departments. They admitted that the technologies used in Ukraine are easy to copy, but the West should still take advantage of the experience of SOU and the Military Industry. Therefore, in their opinion, it would be better to send billions to Ukrainian enterprises that are chronically underfunded.
"The war in Ukraine has opened a Pandora's box of cheap 'spam technology', and it threatens to overwhelm any troops that are not ready for it. My advice to defense companies is that if you are not deeply involved in the war in Ukraine today, you are on the road to bankruptcy tomorrow," concluded Valery Borovik, a drone developer for Operation Web.
Note that in the fall of 2025, Focus wrote about the results of the use of drones by the Armed Forces of Ukraine to strike strategic targets of the Russian Federation deep inside Russian territory. One of the strikes took place on the night of October 22: the UAV was found at a factory in Dagestan that manufactured weapons for the Russian army.