May 4, 2025: The Ukraine War has been disastrous for tanks, with over 10,000 lost by both sides. Ninety percent of those losses were Russian and, since Russia has only one tank manufacturing plant, replacements will be slow in coming. Russian forces can expect to receive a few hundred new tanks in 2025. Ukrainian losses were lower, in addition to receiving hundreds of tanks from NATO countries, mainly Poland. At one point in 2024, Ukraine had more tanks than Russia. Currently Ukraine has about a thousand tanks, including Russian T-72s and Ukrainian T-72 variants.

Ukraine will receive T-72m1 and the upgraded T-72M4 tanks from the Czech Republic by the end of the year. The T-72M4 is an impressive armored vehicle. The 48 ton tank needs a crew of three and uses an autoloader to replace a forth crew member. This tank is well protected with 570mm, or nearly two feet, of frontal armor. Additional armor can easily be added to the sides, rear and top of the tank. The T-72M4 can fire its 125mm main gun accurately while moving. There is an active defense system to defeat anti-tank missiles and rockets.

One thing no tanks in Ukraine possess is effective defenses against aerial drones. Ukraine took the lead in developing new drone models, tactics and has produced several million drones so far. Three million drones are being delivered to Ukrainian troops in 2025. Each Ukrainian combat battalion is equipped with over a hundred drones with plenty of replacements available. While drones rule the battlefield, tanks still operate, but cautiously and with special nets to protect against drone attacks.

Both Russian and Ukrainian forces have inexpensive quadcopter drones controlled by soldiers a kilometer or more away. These drone operators use First Person Viewing or FPV goggles to see what the video camera on the drone can see. Each of these drones carries a small quantity of explosives, roughly equal to what an 81mm mortar shell carries. This enables a drone to become a flying bomb that can fly into a target and detonate. This is an awesome and debilitating weapon when used in large numbers over the combat zone. Larger, fixed wing drones are used for long range, often over a thousand kilometers, operations against targets deep inside Russia.

These small drones are difficult to shoot down until they get close to the ground and the shooter is close enough, as in less than a few hundred meters, away to successfully target a drone with a bullet or two and bring it down. Troops are rarely in position to do this, so most of these drones are able to complete their mission, whether it is a one-way attack or a reconnaissance and surveillance mission. The recon missions are usually survivable and enable the drone to be reused. All these drones are constantly performing surveillance, which means that both sides commit enough drones to maintain constant surveillance over a portion of the front line, to a depth, into enemy territory, of at least a few kilometers. Ukrainian drones have pretty much ended Russian motorized transport with 20-30 kilometers of the front lines.

This massive use of FPV-armed drones revolutionized warfare in Ukraine and both sides are producing as many as they can. Ukrainian drone proliferation began when many individual Ukrainians or small teams designed and built drones. The drones served as potential candidates for widespread use and mass production. This proliferation of designers and manufacturers led to rapid evolution of drone capabilities and uses. Those who could not keep up were less successful in combat and suffered higher losses.

One countermeasure that can work for a while is electronic jamming of the drones control signal. Drone guidance systems are constantly modified or upgraded to cope with this, and many use multiple modes of communications. Most drones have flight control software that sends drones with jammed control signals back to where they took off from to land for later use. The jammers are on the ground and can be attacked by drones programmed to home in on the jamming signal. Countermeasures can be overcome and the side that can do this more quickly and completely has an advantage. That advantage is usually temporary because both sides are putting a lot of effort into keeping their combat drones effective on the battlefield.