ANKARA, Türkiye: NATO drone strategy will face a major test at the Ankara Summit as allies assess Ukraine war lessons and grey-zone threats.
The defence-technology debate centres on whether NATO can build a combat network that learns, produces and updates faster.
The unmanned systems now shape battlefield destruction from target detection to kinetic strikes in the Russia-Ukraine war.
It cited Russian and Ukrainian defence ministry data saying more than 80% of battlefield destruction involved unmanned systems, while noting the difficulty of verifying wartime claims.
The commentary said Ukrainian robotic systems had taken 30% of the Russian Black Sea Fleet out of the conflict.
It also cited NATO’s Steadfast Dart 2026 exercise, where a Bayraktar TB-3 took off autonomously from Türkiye’s TCG Anadolu and landed after hitting targets in the Baltic Sea.
Russia’s September 10, 2025, drone incursion into Polish airspace showed how low-cost unmanned systems can test NATO reaction time, rules of engagement and Article 5 thresholds.
Read: NATO Ankara Summit to Test Defense Pledges
It said NATO’s challenge is not to replace conventional firepower but to integrate drones, electronic warfare, artificial intelligence, secure supply chains and multi-domain operations.
Türkiye is expected to draw attention at the summit because of its operational and industrial experience with unmanned combat aerial vehicles, including Bayraktar systems used in Karabakh, Libya, Syria and Ukraine.
