The Strategic Genius Of Ukraine's New Unmanned Systems Force

For a country at war with a much larger adversary, challenged by access to fewer donated weapons and ammunition stores, as well as a demographically driven shortfall in troops, the impact of unmanned weapons - from drones to missiles and air defense systems - is essential.

Centralizing the development, systemization, training, production and innovation should help scale the impact, which is intended not just to prevail on the battlefield, but to assault Russia's ability to wage war militarily, economically and societally. JL 

Phillips O'Brien reports in his substack:

Zelensky started plans to change the Ukrainian approach to war. (He) formed a new branch of the armed services which includes all remotely controlled or operated weapons, thus missiles as well as drones, called the Unmanned Systems Forces. "Unmanned systems have proven their effectiveness on land, sky and sea: changing the situation in the Black Sea, repelling ground assaults  - primarily the task of drones - and large-scale destruction of the occupiers and their equipment, also the domain of drones. The tasks are staff positions for drone operations, special units, training, systematization, scaling of production, the best ideas and top specialists in this field." Its a plan to attack Russia’s ability to wage war

Its worthy of note that on the week that Zelensky removed Zaluzhny, he also started discussing plans to change the Ukrainian approach to the war. It might be a little early to say that he is adopting a new strategy—but it is worthy of note how he is talking about Ukraine taking the war forward in 2024. You get a good idea of this by reading (or watching videos of) his evening addresses.

Easily the most striking speech this week before Zaluzhny was removed was on Tuesday, when Zelensky proclaimed the formation of an entirely new branch of the armed services—one devoted to the use of Drones and missiles of all types—which he called the Unmanned Systems Forces. Zelensky went into detail as to why.

I have just signed a decree initiating the establishment of a separate branch of our Defense Forces – the Unmanned Systems Forces. This is not a matter of the future, but something that should yield a very concrete result shortly. This year should be pivotal in many ways. And, obviously, on the battlefield as well. Drones – unmanned systems – have proven their effectiveness in battles on land, in the sky and at sea. Ukraine has truly changed the security situation in the Black Sea with the help of drones. Repelling ground assaults is primarily the task of drones. The large-scale destruction of the occupiers and their equipment is also the domain of drones. The current list of tasks is clear: special staff positions for drone operations, special units, effective training, systematization of experience, constant scaling of production, and the involvement of the best ideas and top specialists in this field. This is a task for the army, the Ministry of Defense, and the government as a whole.

A Ukrainian Soldier with a UAV—Ukraine will now have an independent service to plan the usage of such weapons.

To create an entirely new command should make us stand up and take notice. This new service should not only have representatives of all the services (Army, Navy, Air Force, etc) but it will have representatives from across government. I would also argue (but of course dont know) that this new force is now just about UAVs but includes all remotely controlled or operated weapons—thus cruise missiles as well.

For instance, Zelensky talked about UAVs and missiles together. A few days before the announcement of the new service he prioritized Ukrainian plans to improve and better coordinate their ability to shoot down Russian both drones and missiles. Then the day after announcing the formation of the new Unmanned force, he went further and talked about a three-fold priority list for 2024. This was not only to improve Ukrainian capabilities to shoot down Russian drones and missiles, it was for Ukraine to improve its ability to strike back at Russia. But the striking back was not to involve direct attacks against Russian lines—it was to increase Ukrainian ranged attacks and “systemic” attacks against Russian targets.

…our task this year is not only to bolster our sky shield and Ukraine's long-range capabilities to the fullest extent possible, but also to inflict maximum systemic losses on Russia. In particular, this applies to frozen Russian assets, both of the terrorist state and of individuals associated with it.

Adding it together—what we are seeing, I would argue, is the outline of a fascinating strategy of going “over” the Russian defenses in 2024. Ukraine wants to win the UAV/missile war, by shooting down Russian forces and improving Ukrainian. At the same time it wants to attack Russia’s financial and industrial system through both ranged attacks and political attacks on things like seized Russian assets. Overall its a plan to attack Russia’s ability to wage war before returning to attacks on the battlefield.