Another factor is the use of good old built-up areas, towns, and villages. These provide forces with crucial tactical advantages for cover and dispersion against missile and drone attacks. However, this is a double-edged sword, as these same areas have become continuously surveilled kill zones that both sides are actively adapting to. The dense and complex environment of urban areas offers significant defensive benefits in modern drone warfare.

Structures in towns and villages offer vital concealment, which is critical because even low-power drones can carry only a small amount of explosives. Urban terrain allows small Russian infantry groups to gather and stage assaults, protected from some aerial threats.

Features like attached buildings blur the outlines of individual structures, making identification and targeting from the air much harder. Furthermore, urban areas allow for a horizontal partition of space, enabling the creation of "green tunnels" (corridors of trees and vegetation) and other covered routes. These disturb the vertical transmission of electromagnetic and radio waves, complicating GPS tracking and making it more difficult for air forces to pinpoint targets accurately. Despite these advantages, the urban battlefield is extremely deadly and has fundamentally changed the nature of warfare.

A key part of the Russian strategy is identifying and killing Ukrainian drone operators, who are seen as the "centre of gravity" of the Ukrainian military. Artillery and infiltration teams are now often dedicated to this task, even more so than targeting regular infantry.

The anti-drone warfare between Russia and Ukraine has evolved into a relentless technological arms race,........

© The Nation