Media: Ukrainian drones reveal NATO’s blind spots on modern battlefield

During the Hedgehog-2025 military exercise in Estonia, Ukrainian forces revealed that modern NATO armies are not fully prepared for high-intensity drone warfare, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The drill involved more than 16,000 troops from 12 NATO countries and incorporated Ukrainian soldiers experienced on the front line, simulating a “contested and congested” battlefield.

In one scenario, a NATO battle group, including a British brigade and an Estonian division, attempted an offensive but failed to account for the battlefield transparency provided by drones. “It was all destroyed,” recalled a participant playing the adversary, noting that NATO units operated without camouflage, deployed equipment openly, and exchanged data slowly.

Ukrainian forces used the Delta battlefield-management system, which collects real-time intelligence, applies artificial intelligence to analyze data, identifies targets, and coordinates strikes across command units. This enabled a rapid “kill chain” of “see it, share it, shoot it.” A team of about 10 Ukrainians mock-destroyed 17 armored vehicles and conducted 30 strikes on other targets in half a day, effectively neutralizing two NATO battalions in the exercise.

Aivar Hanniotti, coordinator of unmanned aerial systems for the Estonian Defence League, described how their unit, comprising roughly 100 Ukrainians and Estonians, deployed over 30 drones in under four square miles, exposing vulnerabilities in NATO’s tactics. “There was no possibility to hide,” Hanniotti said.

Lt. Col. Arbo Probal, head of Estonia’s unmanned systems program, highlighted the cognitive stress the exercise aimed to create: “The aim was really to create friction, the stress for units, and the cognitive overload as soon as possible.” Sten Reimann, former commander of Estonia’s Military Intelligence Center, called the results “shocking” for military officials and troops.

By Vafa Guliyeva