By Jeff Gilmour, 15 November 2025
The Ukraine War has shown that drones have become the primary military weapon relied on by both Russia and the Ukraine. Drones have redefined battlefields. The most strategically disruptive systems are not the most advanced - they are the most affordable, adaptive and numerous.[1]
Here are some examples of countries and private companies that are building, selling and using drones.
China - produces a wide variety of drones like the Wing Loong series for reconnaissance and strike missions and high-altitude strategic drones such as the WZ-8. It is also producing Kamikaze drones and developing systems that can operate in swarms.[2]
Turkey - Baykar Technologies claim to command 65% of the global armed drone market. Bayraktar TB2 and Akinci drones have a market in 30 countries.[3]
Russia - Last year Reuters reported that AO IEMZ Kupol, part of a state-owned arms company, had, with the help of the Chinese, developed and flight-tested a new drone model, the Garpiya-3, essentially a knock-off of the Iranian designed Shahed.[4] Russia, is scaling up production of small, cheap first-person view (FPV) and quadcopter drones, claiming to produce thousands daily. They are also developing drones with fibre-optic cables and ones with AI.[5]
Ukraine - About 60% of deep strikes on Russian territory are carried out by Ukrainian Fire Point FP-1 drones, which have a small payload and can reach targets 1,500 km distant.[6] They cost around $55,000 each. Ukraine is also using the Lyutyi drone which has a range of 2,000 km, and can carry a heavier payload. It also relies on a machine-vision system to guide it to its target. There are also recent reports that Ukraine is using FP-5 Flamingo cruise missiles that are faster that drones, fly just 50 metres off the ground with a range of about 3,000 km and pack a huge payload.
Africa - By 2023, over 30 African countries had purchased drones of some kind. In 2024, 484 drone strikes were carried out across 13 African countries.[7] Most systems deployed are medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) drones. The most popular appears to be Turkey’s Bayraktar TB2, which costs about $5 million. Other suppliers include the UAE, China and Iran.
Canada - The Canadian Armed Forces are acquiring 11 MQ-9B Sky Guardian (Reaper) drones which are the country’s first armed, high-altitude, long-endurance drone. Delivery is expected to begin in 2028.[8] DND is also exploring the need for smaller cleaner tactical drones for the battlefield, similar to those used by the US military.
[1] O. Saleh, P. Ziade, The Globe and Mail, “A $500 attack drone costs millions to repel. It is an economic war and the West is losing”, 29 May 2025.
[2] Google AI.
[3] F. Pence, “Ukraine showed that drones are the new bullets. Why doesn’t Canada get this?” CBC News, June 4, 2025.
[4] The Economist, “Clues in the wreckage”, June 21, 2025, p.36.
[5] Google, Overview.
[6] The Economist, “Raining hellfire on Russia”, October 11, 2025, p.44.
[7] The Economist, “The scary new age of high tech warfare”, June 21, 2025, p.41.
[8] Google AI.
Image: A graphic of the General Atomics MQ-9B Sky Guardian UAV in Canadian markings. Credit: General Atomics
