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Russia’s War in Ukraine

Understanding the conflict four years on.

Over the last year, reports from Ukraine have described the development of a new ecosystem of drone innovation. Rather than working through the centralized system of funding and procurement that has characterized the modern defense industrial base, Ukraine is “front-brewing”: equipping infantry with weapons produced through a decentralized model and designed in close collaboration with soldiers.

These drones have substantially frozen the front and have also enabled a campaign of interdiction against Russian logistics. In addition to the battlefield impact, the development of this ecosystem may represent a turn in the evolution of the defense industrial base. Yet leading powers may not be able to reproduce this model; ironically, this ecosystem may originate in the weakness of Ukraine’s central government.

Over the last year, reports from Ukraine have described the development of a new ecosystem of drone innovation. Rather than working through the centralized system of funding and procurement that has characterized the modern defense industrial base, Ukraine is “front-brewing”: equipping infantry with weapons produced through a decentralized model and designed in close collaboration with soldiers.

These drones have substantially frozen the front and have also enabled a campaign of interdiction against Russian logistics. In addition to the battlefield impact, the development of this ecosystem may represent a turn in the evolution of the defense industrial base. Yet leading powers may not be able to reproduce this model; ironically, this ecosystem may originate in the weakness of Ukraine’s central government.

In this fifth year of the war, small industrial workshops develop and produce drone designs, which are then shipped to the front lines and........

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