Such is the level of alarm in Nato circles at the advances made by both Ukraine and Russi<\/a>a in battlefield tactics that Ukrainian troops have started training British commanders in how to flood frontlines with thousands of drones to beat back so-called \u201cmeat-grinder\u201d attacks used by the Kremlin to gain ground.<\/p>\n Kyiv\u2019s creation of a \u201cdrone wall\u201d \u2013 the layering of a battlefield with surveillance and attack unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) ahead of frontline troops at such density that Russian assaults<\/a> can be halted without exposing Ukrainian forces to similar levels of attrition \u2013 has sparked a race by some European countries to build their own equivalent. <\/p>\n Germany is leading an initiative by six Nato members, including Norway, Finland and the Baltic States, to establish their own state-of-the-art defensive line using drones on the alliance\u2019s eastern border to counter a future Kremlin incursion and its growing use of unconventional warfare tactics.<\/p>\n In Britain, the expected publication next week of the Government\u2019s long-awaited Strategic Defence Review is set to include a \u00a31bn budget to develop technology to speed up battlefield decisions<\/a> with tools including drones, amid apparent acceptance from ministers that the mass-deployment of UAVs has become a necessity of warfare. <\/p>\n In Ukraine, mass-produced, expendable drones now account for 80 per cent of casualties inflicted on Russian forces, many of them caused by so-called first-person view or FPV drones directed by a remote operator to a target. <\/p>\n According to one estimate, Kyiv destroyed 5,100 Russian tanks and armoured vehicles last year using FPV drones and is currently producing about 200,000 of the devices every month. In turn, Moscow has developed its own industrial-scale drone capacity and is currently regarded to have a technological edge over Ukraine in drones which use fibre-optic cables<\/a> to defeat jamming technologies and reach their targets. Both sides are also fielding drones with rising levels of autonomy, rendering them capable of seeking out and even attacking targets without direct human control. <\/p>\n But there is increasing concern that Britain and its allies have been slow to respond and lack the capacity to design and manufacture the millions of drones needed to confront the Kremlin if Russian president Vladimir Putin turns his attentions to NATO. <\/p>\n Bob Tollast, a land warfare expert at the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi), told The i Paper: \u201cWe need to rapidly scale up training and integration of drones in our forces, as well as securing enough of the systems and components from trusted allied countries and our own production. Unfortunately, this is a very long way off.\u201d<\/p>\n He added that compared to the current production levels Ukraine and Russia, the drone output of European countries, the US and Asian allies \u201cisn\u2019t nearly enough for modern war, even if combined\u201d. <\/p>\n One former UK military commander, who was consulted as part of the defence review, said: \u201cRussia is operating a war economy and has an ability to reconstitute its forces far, far quicker than Nato at present. At the same time Putin has shown he is willing to accept horrific casualty rates. When you then add in drones, the game has changed dramatically.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is an urgent need to achieve the sort of scale in drones and other materiel that is going to give the Kremlin pause as far as meddling with Nato. As we speak, that is not happening.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Regular](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/SEI_253653613.jpg\")
Caption: Ukraine has successfully deployed a \u2018drone wall\u2019 to repel Russian attacks (Source: Getty)<\/p>\n
![\"KYIV,](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/SEI_253653790.jpg\")
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky shows Sir Keir Starmer Ukrainian military drones in Kyiv, earlier this year (Source: Getty)<\/p>\n