Introduction. Modern armed conflict is undergoing significant changes. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) have become one of the impulses of such changes. The article examines the evolution of military UAV in modern armed conflicts and the adaptation of civilian drones for military needs. The study considered the use of unmanned technologies in the asymmetric conflicts of the United States, the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020 and during the Special Military Operation in Ukraine. The article analyzes their impact on the tactics of military operations, the ability to change approaches to planning and conducting operations, what new challenges and threats this creates for the military, politicians and society as a whole. The relevance of the article is due to the increased importance of unmanned aerial technologies in armed conflicts and the rapid changes in unmanned technologies themselves.
Materials and methods. The content analysis method allows us to identify and summarize the practice of using UAV. The comparative method is used to compare the experience of using, firstly, unmanned technologies in asymmetric conflicts and in special military operations in Ukraine, and secondly, commercial unmanned vehicles adapted for military needs, and FPV drones are compared – an innovation of the current conflict. Using this method, the general and specific characteristics of unmanned aerial vehicles and the experience of their use were highlighted. The article is based on a set of materials, including theoretical works investigating the evolution of armed conflicts in the context of a changing system of international relations (late XX – early XXI centuries); analytical materials on the operational and tactical use of unmanned systems in modern military campaigns; empirical data verified by methods of OSINT analysis: reports of monitoring groups, official summaries of the Ministry of Defense, media documentation of military operations.
Results. Unmanned aerial vehicles have changed the armed conflict in many ways, becoming a factor in changing long-standing customs of warfare. During the special military operation, civilian unmanned aerial vehicles have been adopted for strike and reconnaissance purposes and continue to expand their functionality, which greatly simplifies the conduct of high-tech conflict. At the same time, modern technologies remain largely dependent on traditional weapons and the conclusion about a radical change in the ways of warfare and the death of certain types of military equipment seems premature.
Conclusion. The study suggests that the prospects for the combat use of UAV will be determined by factors of technological accessibility, operational and tactical integration into existing weapons systems and the ability of the international community to develop legal mechanisms to regulate their use, which together creates a new challenge to the international security system.