Drone war shaking up hierarchy of global defense industry

By Alimat Aliyeva

The rapid spread of new effective military technologies in the drone era is disrupting the systemic hierarchy of the global defense industry, which has long been dominated by large contractors, Azernews reports.

The article notes that the development of conventional weapons programs sometimes takes decades and relies on significant government budgets, as well as large research and testing centers. On the contrary, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which were more widely used during the conflict in Ukraine, are cheap, efficient and produced very quickly, which helps to neutralize competition between small players and recognized industrial giants in the global defense industry."

According to Lorenz Meyer, the head of the American company Auterion, which develops software for Ukrainian drones, the period of development and implementation of new technologies is very short. Mikael Johansson, CEO of the Swedish Saab concern, emphasizes that the events in Ukraine show the importance of time and more flexible development for the global arms market. Instead of developing an ideal product that will take years to produce, it is more profitable to quickly create products that can be tested, modified and retested.

The head of the UK Strategic Command, James Hockenhall, said earlier: "The main thing that the war in Ukraine has taught us is the importance of moving faster." The Financial Times newspaper notes that the ubiquity of drones is profoundly changing the defense industry as new players emerge. enter this sector for decades. It competes with well-established companies such as Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and BAE Systems, which have dominated for many years.