Changes to how wars are fought are quicker than what the majority of experts expected. The war in Ukraine is a vivid example of this change, where drones were used to bypass enemy lines in a very brave way. The June 2025 campaign, known as Operation Spider’s Web, is already being recognized as the moment of change in the history of conflict.
Certainly, it was not a one-day attack. It took more than a year of meticulous planning to achieve it. The intelligence of Ukraine succeeded in smuggling modular launchers along with over 150 tiny strike drones across the frontier, concealing them in wooden huts or beneath civilian trucks. After getting into the right places at the board with four Russian air bases, the drones were secretly launched, circumventing defenses, and hitting places that were long neglected.
Even the very experienced observers were blown away by the magnitude of the impact. Officials of Ukraine said that the Russian strategic air fleet was almost a third disabled during a single night. Among the downed machines were the aircraft, like the A-50 radar plane and Tu-95 bombers. The bill for the damage was in the hundreds of billions range, but the mission itself was only a fraction of that—a very clear presentation of the potential of asymmetric warfare.
Ukrainian’s advantage over what turned out to be not only courageous but also smart. They transformed standard technology and freely available software, such as ArduPil,ot which were never supposed to be used in war, into tools for the war. Several drones were using the current 4G networks to stay connected, and they didn’t need the vulnerable ground stations.
The operators were able to control them through live video feeds, and in some instances, the AI that was on board the aircraft could detect the parts that were weak in the aircraft–fuel seams, sensors, or pylons–and thus guided the attacks with unbelievable precision. The human skill and machine intelligence were a remarkable showcase for this.
For Russia, it was not just the destruction of the valuable planes that shocked. What was left in the strongest shield—geography—meant almost nothing. Aircraft that had taken decades to design and build, and which could not be quickly replaced, were erased by drones that run on nothing more than lithium batteries. They have a heavy financial burden for repairs and dispersal, but psychological weight may also be there. For the first time, the Russians who lived far from the front understood that the war could still come to them.
The lessons for the rest of the world are quite visible. When confronted with large numbers of cheap, disposable drones, expensive platforms such as stealth jets, heavy armor, and naval carriers are increasingly vulnerable.
Defenses need to dedicate resources to distributing forces, concealing critical assets, fortifying shelters, and deploying advanced countermeasures such as jammers and directed-energy technology. Even the worldwide flow of civilian goods can become a problem because tiny drones and their parts can be hidden within normal shipments, which are almost impossible to monitor, given the amount of trade.
Special operations teams became a very important factor, too. Working with civilian experts, the forces of Ukraine showed how rapidly new tools can be introduced on the battlefield. They showed that constant, small strikes that gradually weaken the enemy’s strength without the necessity for large-scale battles could be done by eliminating air defenses and making Russia move its most valuable resources.
On a larger scale, Operation Spider’s Web can be considered as the first chapter of the new era of wars. The line that separated civilian and military technology was barely distinguishable. The gadgets that were once the hobbyists’ favorites—FPV drones, open-source autopilots, machine learning—are now the very things that have the power to change the doctrines that were the giants of the defense industry’s most tightly guarded secrets. Countries that only depend on prestige platforms and do not incorporate technology quickly enough will be the ones to fall behind.
The concept is quite immediate and straightforward: the combination of agility, resourcefulness, and resilience will be the criteria that determine the future successes of battles. Ukraine has demonstrated beyond doubt that the time for nimble, intelligent, and adaptable solutions is here. The question that remains for the rest of the world is whether or not they will adapt in time.