Ukraine’s drone – At a drone summit in Latvia, Ukraine’s defense officials and NATO leaders said the repeated exercise results—Ukraine’s small teams beating allied “blue teams” in drone drills—are not a surprise, but they are a warning. NATO is trying to train for a new era of
For NATO, the moment doesn’t come from a battlefield report or a dramatic headline. It comes from the training room itself—where Ukrainian drone teams, often small and tightly focused, keep outpacing allied units in exercises.
At a drone summit in Latvia attended by Business Insider, Ukrainian and NATO officials described those repeated wins as predictable. The surprise, they said, is how quickly Western forces need to absorb the gap they’re seeing.
Davyd Aloian, the deputy secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, put the explanation in plain terms. Ukraine’s advantage, he said, comes from “practical experience.” “They always demolish the Russians on the front line,” he said. “So they have this experience.”
Tarja Jaakkola. NATO’s assistant secretary general for defense industry. innovation. and armaments. agreed that the outcome made sense—but framed it as urgent instruction. “I would be surprised if it would have been vice versa. ” she said. because “the Ukrainians. they have the battlefield experience.”.
That difference sits at the heart of NATO’s push to bring Ukrainian units into exercises aimed at preparing allied troops for modern drone warfare. Ukraine’s teams have repeatedly beaten the allied forces they faced in those drills. NATO leaders said the results aren’t surprising, even as they underline how much Western training still needs to adjust.
In March, the head of NATO Allied Command Transformation, Adm. Pierre Vandier. argued that “short of war. training is all we have to make ourselves better.” He later expanded the idea of what training should be for: “We therefore need to rebuild the training machine — making it harder. more realistic. and more demanding. because training must be the place where we can fail. learn. and adapt before war forces us to.”.
Carsten Breuer, chief of defense at the Federal Ministry of Defense of Germany, echoed the same tone at the summit. Ukraine’s exercise victories. he said. weren’t surprising. and he was glad NATO could learn from shortfalls revealed in these encounters. “I think it’s clear that there’s a steep learning curve for us,” he said.
The drills include scenarios designed to test NATO forces and, in some cases, deliberately limit what NATO units can use. Officials stressed that losing an exercise doesn’t automatically mean those forces would lose in a real war. But the West’s message has been consistent: Ukraine has experience in drone warfare. and NATO wants to learn as much as it can.
Two examples stood out.
A naval drone drill off Portugal saw a Ukraine-led “red team” beat NATO’s “blue team” in all five simulated scenarios. In Sweden. Ukrainian drone pilots playing the aggressor repeatedly overwhelmed Swedish troops during a NATO exercise. forcing the training to pause as the Swedes adjusted their tactics.
Sweden’s chief of defense, Gen. Michael Claesson, said after the Swedish exercise that Western forces must “learn rapidly” how to execute drone and counter-drone operations, and the “fastest” way is to listen to the Ukrainians.
NATO has also leaned on the idea that Ukraine’s role in exercises is not just about participating. but about confronting allied troops as an enemy. Adm. Giuseppe Cavo Dragone. the chair of NATO’s military committee. said in April that Ukrainian personnel are frequently tasked with acting as a “red team” in training scenarios—acting as the enemy against NATO units to teach those units to defend against drone attacks.
Ukraine’s leaders say the knowledge it brings isn’t limited to one type of capability. Aloian told Business Insider in an interview that Ukraine is sharing what it has learned with partner nations and is “ready to give those lessons that we have learned and to contribute to the common defense.” He described Ukrainian soldiers as having knowledge and experience of “new strategies.” He said that “obviously they will have some more skills on some of the implementation of the new solutions.”.
Olexandr Mischenko. Ukraine’s deputy minister of foreign affairs. said at the drone summit in Latvia that “Ukraine has become a source of unique combat experiences. in the use of amphibious drones. maritime unmanned platforms. electronic warfare. and the integration of advanced technologies into modern warfare. This experience is critically important for the security of all of Europe and the Euro-Atlantic community.”.
Western militaries, Ukraine’s officials said, are increasingly turning to Ukrainian instructors to train their own armies, consulting the Ukrainian military for expertise, and working with Ukrainian industry to learn as much as possible.
Jaakkola framed the purpose of this exchange with a message that links training failure to learning. She pointed to NATO Allied Command Transformation’s argument that “we should be failing in our exercises because that’s when we learn and that’s when we actually are able to develop as well.”
In that setting, Ukraine’s repeated wins become more than a scoreboard. They become a mirror. They show where the West’s training methods are still catching up to the realities the Ukrainian teams have been confronting.
Ukraine’s officials described the strategic shift that follows. The West still has “lots of weaponry and expertise Ukraine needs. ” but the dynamic has shifted. allowing Ukraine to become more of a partner than a dependent. Western units that help train Ukrainian troops have also said they’ve learned key lessons in the process. using the chance to understand what they need to change about their own training and preparations.
Jaakkola closed with gratitude that is hard to separate from the stakes of the message. NATO is “truly thankful and grateful to Ukraine about how they also bring the knowledge they have gained during this awful war to the alliance as well.”
Ukraine drones NATO exercises drone warfare counter-drone training defense industry innovation Latvia drone summit Davyd Aloian Tarja Jaakkola Adm. Pierre Vandier Adm. Giuseppe Cavo Dragone Carsten Breuer Michael Claesson