Has America Already Lost the Next Drone Race?

The next stage of drone development might already be a foregone conclusion, and the USA is, in my view, on the back foot.

I’m confident that Ukraine will win the war—and let’s hope it’s sooner rather than later.

Once the fighting has stopped, the hard-won experience forged on the battlefield will, I believe, stay close to home.

While DJI may have won the first round of the modern drone “grift,” I reckon battle-born experience and a profound distrust of America will ensure these critical skills remain firmly within Europe. 

Crucially, there are simply no truly successful, mass-produced ‘Made in America’ RPAS currently operating on the Ukrainian battlefield.

We can look back at history for a parallel. After the Second World War, German rocket scientists were either pressured or persuaded to move to America. Crucially, they entered a world physically untouched by the conflict: no bombed-out cities and food in plentiful supply.

Today’s Ukrainian drone technicians and operators are the modern equivalents of those German scientists. They possess the latest cutting-edge knowledge and invaluable operational experience.

This presents a serious challenge to NATO militaries. They need to catch up, and quickly. Most of them are conveniently located in countries that have remained unaffected by the war.

Ukrainian drone teams will be able to easily export their skills by road or rail. Equally, they could just as easily import NATO units to train in Ukraine itself.

With America currently showing very little sustained support for either Ukraine or NATO, Ukrainians might feel less disposed to travelling stateside.

If Europe starts building in house, the American market alone is simply not large enough to sustain drone start ups.