User Innovation in Military Drone Development:
The Russo-Ukrainian War, 2022-2025
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, drones have come to pervade the battlefield and changed modern war. This study examines the innovation processes underpinning this technological development.
Departing from theories of user innovation, it asks what is the role of users in military drone innovation in the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and how does user innovation operate at the scale observed in the conflict?
Based on an abductive analysis of media reports from major Western news outlets, as well as an assemblage of reports and whitepapers from Ukrainian sources and a diversity of Western analysts, we make several observations.
We find broad support for the notion that frontline users have been central to Ukrainian drone innovation, especially when taking into account behavioral innovation and experimentation with product configurations.
To occur, however, this user innovation appears to be dependent on pre-existing knowledge stocks and the exposure of technologically sophisticated individuals to high-need user roles, as well as on organizing principles that are unconventional in military units. To scale, user innovation also appears dependent on producer firms with high levels of absorptive capacity and specialization in several distinct manufacturing niches that complement and enable frontline user innovation.
