The proliferation of commercial drones in the Russo-Ukrainian war was an unexpected transformation of warfare for many scholars. Prior studies expected the future of drone warfare to consist of mostly strategic drones, identical to what we have seen from the U.S in the Middle East. The drone warfare in Ukraine is by some studies described as an evolution in warfare. One factor that is quite unique for this war is that the phenomena of commercial drones seem to be inspired by violent non-state actors. This study aims to investigate how drone warfare has evolved in the Ukrainian army between the 24th of February 2022 to the 6th of February 2024 using Horowitz and Pindyk´s theory of military innovation.
The innovation of the commercial drones in Ukraine started in 2014 where Ukrainian volunteers experimented with commercial drones against pro-Russian separatist. In 2022, when the full-scale invasion of Ukraine started, these experienced volunteers proved crucial in supporting the regular Ukrainian troops with air reconnaissance by drones. The Ukrainian army started to take inspiration from these volunteers and soldiers started to buy their own drones. Crowdfunding and the domestic market were an enabling factor for the proliferation of drones. The Ukrainian department of defense rapidly realized this and started to organize different civilian and grassroots efforts. This eventually led to an organized institutionalization of commercial drones in the army in general. On the 6th of February 2024 Ukraine decided to add a new branch to the armed forces, “The Unmanned System Forces”. This can be seen as the final step in institutionalizing drones into their armed forces.