A warfare revolution is taking place with drones where technology may be taking primacy over soldiers on the battlefield, a defence minister has suggested.
Veterans’ Minister Alistair Carns said the massive increase in use of drones in Vladimir Putin’s Ukraine war was “like a machine gun moment for the army”.
The former Royal Marines Colonel, aged 44, who did five operational tours in Afghanistan, believes drones may be starting to “absolutely change the character of how we fight wars”.
He stresssed that the speed of change in technology was one of the reasons why the next Strategic Defence Review in the spring would be so important.
Asked about drones, he told GB News: “This is like a machine gun moment for the army, a submarine moment for the navy, and a jet engine moment for the air force.
“It’s changing the entire character of conflict to the point of where we could argue it’s about supporting technology in the field rather than the individual.”
“That is why the SDR is so critical as we move forward because I think this is a moment in warfare where we will look back and see the character of how we fight wars has absolutely changed.”
In an intelligence update just days ago, the Ministry of Defence in London said around 2000 “kamikaze” drones - or One Way Attack Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (OWA UAVs) - were launched by Russia against Ukraine in October, 700 more than in September and “increasing significantly for the third month in a row”.
The briefing added: “With continuing Russian investment in a range of OWA UAVs, diversification of supply, and expansion of launch-sites, firing rates have been trending consistently upwards since mid-2024.
“Through the first week of November Russian firing rates remained high and in-line with recent weeks.
“With launch sites being reasonably simple and easy to re-establish if targeted, should production remain uninhibited, the primary limiting factor for Russian OWA UAV operations is likely human resource relative to launch capacity. It is likely that the high figures seen through September and October to date will become normal.”
Ukraine has also dramatically upped its drone warfare capabilities, with some strikes more than 900 miles inside Russia.
As the West faces growing threats, Defence Secretary John Healey repeatedly declined to commit to a date by when Britain would be spending 2.5 per cent of GDP on defence.
Labour made a commitment in its manifesto to achieve this target, with America pressurising Nato allies to step up defence expenditure.
“We will set out that 2.5 per cent path, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury yesterday said you will see this in the spring,” Mr Healey told BBC radio, but stopping short of pledging it would be this Parliament, within the next five years.
“Everyone is agreed, defence spending must rise.
“We have got to deal with this new era of insecurity, we have got to make our armed forces better fit to fight, better able to deter those who would do us harm.”
However, any spending pledge is only fully meaningful if it has a specific timescale.
Mr Healey insisted defence spending was already getting £2.9 billion extra next year, on top of £3 billion this year for Ukraine.
