Technological Evolution on the Battlefield

Technological Evolution on the Battlefield

Photo: Pavlo Bahmut / Ukrinform/Future Publishing/Getty Images

Commentary by [Aosheng Pusztaszeri] and [Emily Harding]

Published September 16, 2025

This commentary is part of a report from the CSIS Defense and Security Department entitled [War and the Modern Battlefield: Insights from Ukraine and the Middle East].

War and the Modern Battlefield: Insights from Ukraine and the Middle East

Digital Report by The CSIS Defense and Security Department — September 16, 2025

“Soldiers hike for miles, ducking into cover, through drone-infested territory too dangerous for jeeps, armored personnel carriers or tanks. Soldiers say it has become strangely personal, as buzzing robots hunt specific cars or even individual soldiers. It is, they say, a feeling of a thousand snipers in the sky.” – Marc Santora, “Rise of the Dragons: Fire-Breathing Drones Duel in Ukraine,” New York Times1

In war, soldiers get creative. They find new ways to use old equipment and ask for new technologies to solve problems as they emerge. In turn, those new technologies drive tactics and operations for warfighting in unprecedented and sometimes unpredictable ways. The party that innovates, procures, and adapts first secures an often insurmountable edge. For instance, during World War I, the British developed the first rudimentary tank to break the stalemate of trench warfare, spawning successive models that ultimately helped turn the tide on the Western Front.2

The recent conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East have represented a leap forward in the employment of technology on the battlefield by sophisticated actors. Ukraine and Russia have each evolved to shape a battlefield defined by drone warfare and drawn to a stalemate, and Israel has used its technological edge, including AI-generated target recommendations, to devastate Hamas.

Ultimately, the next generation of warfare will not be defined solely by who possesses the most advanced technology, but by who can integrate, adapt, and counter it the fastest.

However, overdependence on technology courts dangerous consequences. For example, Israel’s tech-intensive Gaza border defenses clearly failed on October 7, 2023, and the Israeli government has also been heavily criticized for its use of AI systems for targeting and identifying alleged members of Hamas in large crowds. Further, in the race to out-innovate the adversary, there is a real risk of overlooking ethical considerations and the need for rigorous testing in favor of speed and lethality.

This chapter examines how emerging technologies are reshaping modern warfare by considering the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and around Israel. In this future landscape, conflicts will increasingly resemble Ukraine’s high-tech cat-and-mouse game rather than the Battle of Medina Ridge and Desert Storm.3 It will be less of a grind, making the best use of the forces