Russia Centralizes Drones As Ukraine Disperses Units, Reflecting Their Cultures

Russian and Ukrainian approach to drone warfare reflects their organizational and political cultures. 

Ukraine, now receiving 200,000 drones a month, favors a distributed, adaptive and entrepreneurial effort, integrating drone forces closely into front line units and encouraging them to to what works best in their sector. Russia, on the other hand, insists on centralizing drone organization with tight, centralized control over every aspect of that service. This difference may explain Ukraine's perceived advantage in innovation and effectiveness, revealing a larger lesson about the two enemies' differing management of the war. JL

Institute For the Study of War:

The Russian MoD's efforts to centralize and reorganize drone units and monopolize drone production and procurement processes may complicate Russian forces' ability to rapidly innovate and adapt new technologies and combat techniques in the short- to medium-term, further highlighting ongoing efforts to centralize and bureaucratize control over drone operations.. Russian efforts to centralize drone units have attempted to augment Russian drone capabilities by expanding state control over drone operators and developers and increasing their incorporation into the Russian military bureaucracy.

Ukraine's efforts to integrate drone operations with ground operations significantly differ from Russian efforts to centralize drone units. Russian efforts to centralize drone units have attempted to augment Russian drone capabilities by expanding state control over drone operators and developers and increasing their incorporation into the Russian military bureaucracy.[3]

 

The Russian military began efforts to centralize drone operators and developers in Fall 2024, disbanding informal Russian drone detachments and removing drone specialists from regular military units, then selectively reorganizing them to form new Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD)-controlled drone units and centralizing their assets. The Russian MoD also reportedly established its first separate unmanned systems regiment at the military district level in January 2024, further highlighting ongoing efforts to centralize and bureaucratize control over drone operations.[4] I

 

ISW continues to assess that the Russian MoD's efforts to centralize and reorganize drone units and monopolize drone production and procurement processes may complicate Russian forces' ability to rapidly innovate and adapt new technologies and combat techniques in the short- to medium-term.[5]