Fast, cheap, deadly: the budget drone changing global warfare

The Russians went after them with ground-based air defences primarily,” says Jack Watling, a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute think-tank in London. “Today [the TB2s] are mainly being held in reserve or used by the Ukrainian navy for patrolling the coast.” Kyiv also lost drones because they were being used to perform operations that would be too dangerous for manned aircraft, Watling adds. “These are objects that you take risks with, and they get shot up.”