The U.S. media "Wall Street Journal" published an article on April 10 saying that "the Russia-Ukraine conflict has proven to be a drone war", but it is a pity that no U.S. drone company can "make a big deal" in this war for the time being.
Even Brie, the CEO of the well-known American drone brand Scaudio, admitted that they have more than once received feedback from Ukrainian servicemen on the front line that their drones "are not a successful platform."
On the contrary, there are quite a few Chinese drones that are well received on the battlefield, and many front-line Ukrainian troops have appeared to say: "Without Chinese drones, you can't win the Russian army."
The Ukrainian army uses drones
What's more, the Russian embassy has publicly posted on social media praising China's DJI drones, saying that DJI's quadcopter drones have changed war.
And this scared DJI immediately came out to "refute the rumors" that it produced civilian drones and did not involve the military.
Why do drones work so well?
In fact, drones can "show their might" in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, and cost is its main factor.
From ancient times to the present, many weapons have been developed to replace higher-cost weapons with lower-cost weapons.
For example, the replacement of musketeers by archers is a typical replacement of weapons with lower training costs.
Another example is the emergence of tanks, to a large extent, Britain wants to save the cost of manpower and time on the battlefield of World War I, after all, the situation of advancing a few meters a day in the "trench warfare" of World War I is too great for soldiers and time.
Today, the cost of UAVs is much smaller than the cost of conventional weapons.
In China, a cheap drone costs only a few hundred yuan, but the most ordinary 155 mm caliber artillery shell is worth 2,000 euros.
And that's the price before the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. After the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, artillery shells in the entire international arms trade market suddenly became in short supply.
Artillery shell production
Thanks to Hayek's "invisible hand", the price of 155 mm caliber shells quadrupled, at one point to 8,000 euros each.
If 8,000 euros is used to build suicide cruise missiles, it is enough to build several of them.
On the one hand, it is 8,000 euros a piece, which requires a matching artillery to be used, and many times it cannot hit the target, and on the other hand, it is a "low-profile cruise missile" that is more than 1000 euros, or even only a few hundred euros in some cases, and can carry out precise strikes.
Therefore, relying on the cost advantage, drones quickly killed all sides in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and became the darling of warfare in the new era.
Judging by the current performance of Russia and Ukraine in the war, the "drone dividend" will continue for a long time, and may even get bigger.
The Ukrainian army uses drones
In February 2024, Zelensky announced that he would create a dedicated drone unit. Earlier, Zelensky announced that he would produce 1 million drones in a year in 2024.
From this, it can be seen that Ukraine now attaches great importance to drones and wants to use drones as a "main weapon".
It is also very normal for Ukraine to have this kind of action, after all, after more than 2 years of Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the entire country's finances have been hollowed out, and drones, a low-cost weapon, can be said to be the most suitable thing for Ukraine.
The Ukrainian army uses drones
Advantages of Chinese UAVs
As for why the drones on the battlefield of Russia and Ukraine have a situation where the United States can't do it but China can, the fundamental reason is that cost is precisely the biggest advantage of China's industrial system.
The cost advantage of China's industrial system mainly comes from three aspects.
The first is a complete industrial chain. China is the only country in the world with a whole industrial chain, which means that many of China's industrial products can be localized with all parts, which can greatly reduce production costs.
The second is a well-developed infrastructure and transportation system. Logistics costs are also a major part of industrial production.
China's transportation system
The core reason why coastal cities tend to develop better than inland cities is that coastal cities can rely on shipping to greatly reduce logistics costs.
China benefited from the idea of "building roads before getting rich" in the last century, and by this century had built a fairly complete logistics network. Coupled with China's unique Yangtze River logistics system, China's logistics costs are also very low.
The third is that China has a large population that is relatively cheap but heavily educated.
China not only has a population of 1.4 billion, but the vast majority of these 1.4 billion people have received at least nine years of compulsory education, which makes China's population quality significantly ahead of the world.
On this basis, China can maintain this massive industrial system and become the world's largest industrial nation.
Therefore, China's drones are the most cost-effective drones in the world. Drones that are more advanced than China are not as cheap as China, and those that are cheaper than Chinese drones are far less advanced than it.
Today, China's civilian drones occupy 70% of the global market, and industrial drones occupy 50% of the global market, making it a veritable "drone country".
The impact of drones on China's military power
As for the impact of drones on China's military power, it is actually very large.
Drone production line
China's drones can have a huge impact on the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and naturally they can also greatly improve China's military power.
At present, China's use of UAVs in reconnaissance has come to the forefront of the world, and UAVs led by Wuzhen-7 and Wuzhen-8 have long been in service and have formed combat effectiveness.
And China has a deep technical accumulation in the flight control system of UAVs, so China's crossing aircraft is also at the forefront of the world.
Traversing machine
So when the Russian and Ukrainian armies are flying drones on the Great Plains of Ukraine, China is already pushing for the use of drones in street battles.
What's more, China still has a lot of research on swarm drones.
In many sci-fi movies, swarms of autonomous drones often bring very striking visual effects, and China is already developing such drones.
Therefore, in the future, UAVs will also have an increasing share of China's military power, and the UAVs used by the Chinese People's Liberation Army will also become more and more advanced.
Concept art of a swarm drone
And because of the existence of the Taiwan issue of China and the special environment on the island, the drones used by the PLA may shine in the future in military reunification operations.
Resources:
[1] Reference News: "Ukraine Announces the Establishment of "Drone Arms""
[2] Finance Associated Press, "Britain and Ukraine Sign Defense Framework Agreement, British Arms Enterprises Directly Settle in Ukraine"