Ukrainian forces say they're intercepting roughly 90% of the Russian drones launched in frequent attacks, and the head of the UK Royal Air Force told Business Insider that Britain is learning from Kyiv's battlefield successes.
Air Chief Marshal Harvey Smyth said during a recent interview at an RAF base in the UK that "at the moment, with the capabilities the Ukrainians have, they're achieving over a 90% rate in terms of intercepting Russian drones."
Smyth, Britain's Chief of the Air Staff, said Ukraine is achieving these kinds of results even when Russia launches hundreds of drones from different directions in its nightly attacks. He described the air defense efforts as "exceptional."
Ukraine is facing a "record-high intensity" of Russian attacks, Kyiv's defense ministry said on Thursday.
Last month, Ukrainian forces intercepted nearly 6,000 missiles and drones launched by Russia. More than 89% of one-way attack drones — typically fixed-wing aircraft armed with small but still deadly warheads — were downed, though this figure reached as high as 95% during some of the largest bombardments, Kyiv said.
Britain, for several years following the Russian full-scale invasion in 2022, has helped Ukraine develop its combat and counter-drone capabilities as Moscow has steadily ramped up the pace of its attacks and invested in increased production of these weapons.
Smyth said that Ukraine has deployed counter-drone defenses that have performed well in combat and is further developing these critical capabilities. "They're spiraling their capabilities so quickly — it's breathtaking," the RAF chief said of Kyiv.
"I'm now at a point where I'm going there to learn from them," Smyth said. "The learning that we're getting from Ukraine — and the fact that they're actually fighting against an adversary that we may need to defend against in the future" — will be used to inform UK military planning.
Britain and its NATO allies, including the US, are using lessons from Ukraine and the latest Middle East conflict to further refine their approaches to drone warfare, which has exposed gaps in Western air defenses and overall preparedness.
Ukraine has pioneered the development of interceptor drones, which have emerged as a cost-efficient way to defeat incoming one-way attack drones without relying on expensive missiles.
Global interest in Ukraine's interceptor drones has soared in recent weeks after Iran launched waves of drones across the Middle East in response to American and Israeli airstrikes.
Ukraine uses a range of other tools to fight Russian drones, including short-range missile systems, truck-mounted machine guns, electronic warfare, helicopters, and even other aircraft.
"Russia is trying to exhaust Ukrainian air defense day and night," the Ukrainian defense ministry said, adding that its forces "continue to prove their resilience, professionalism, and effectiveness."
However, Kyiv also said Thursday that it still faces a shortage in Patriot interceptors used to defend against Russian ballistic missiles, which it described as a "serious challenge." Ukrainian officials have long pressed their NATO counterparts for more of these high-value munitions.
