Iran and Russia are democratising suicide attack drones like the Shahed-type, familiar in both the Ukraine and Iran wars, to such an extent that soon aerial strikes will be within the reach of terrorists, criminal gangs, and even lone-wolf attackers, Zelensky warned.
Europe has to improve its security infrastructure to outpace the racing progress in drone warfare if it is to protect its way of life against the democratisation of cheap, potent devices, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky told an audience of lawmakers in London on Tuesday.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy visits Parliament / House of Commons
Comparing the lifestyle in London to that in Kyiv, which remains recognisably normal and not pushed underground or swathed in anti-drone defences, President Zelensky said:
…will there still be a world where people live above the ground, underneath the sun? Under concrete just to stay safe. It’s up to us to decide and we are here in this great building of the British Parliament, calm and safe, not in a shelter.
On your way here you saw tree branches over the streets, not protective netting against FPV drones… feels so simple, so familiar, as if it has always been there. It’s almost impossible to imagine it ending, but what guarantees that it will continue?
The comments are part of a longstanding series of speeches by President Zelensky to invoke the image of Western capitals under siege by drones, and to establish Ukraine as a bulwark to be supported to prevent such possibilities. Further touting Ukraine’s utility to its allies, Zelensky said hundreds of Ukrainian drone warfare experts had already been sent to the Middle East to help fight Iran’s strikes.
One of the key features of drone warfare which has been repeatedly discussed is the asymmetric nature of the cost to launch drones by one side and to defeat them by the other. Even the heavy hitting suicide attack drones, like the Iranian-designed Shahed, cost just a few tens of thousands of dollars each, while intercepting them can cost millions of dollars and demand sophisticated and scarce equipment.
This cost may tumble as supply increases, Zelensky suggested, raising the risk that Shahed-type drones could proliferate onto the global black market and become a viable attack vector for non-state actors.
We must build security so that the evolution of security stays ahead of the evolution of war. And it is not only about a state launching attacks, we must be ready for any kind of strike including from non-state actors, criminal networks, terrorist groups, and even lone attackers who can gain access to such technology. With the spread of drones, mass attacks no longer cost billions. It is no longer only a wealthy madman like Putin who can afford this, unfortunately.
Zelensky’s remarks are not the first time European governments have warned that non-state actors are on the verge of weaponising drones for attacks. Last year a military theorist warned that criminal gangs are already using increasingly sophisticated drones for contraband smuggling and that it was only a matter of time before terrorists gained access, and counter-drone efforts are difficult in urban areas.
Quite apart from the high risk of collateral damage from attempting to bring drones down near people’s homes, experience in trying to jam drones delivering drugs to prisons found the high power radio equipment ” affects the nearby police station, hospital and local residents’ broadband”, and was consequently very unpopular and often turned off.
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