The Battlefield Is Changing Fast
The wars of the future won't look much like the wars of the past. Across NATO training grounds in Latvia, soldiers are learning to fight alongside — and against — a new class of adversary: unmanned drones and autonomous robots that are fundamentally reshaping how military conflict unfolds.
CBC's Murray Brewster, reporting for The National, travelled to Latvia to document this shift up close. What he found was an army of nations drilling not just for conventional combat, but for a world where a drone the size of a shoebox can take out a tank, and where the edge goes to whoever best understands machines.
Ukraine as the Proving Ground
The war in Ukraine has become the most significant real-world laboratory for drone and robotic warfare in modern history. Both sides have deployed unmanned aerial systems at unprecedented scale — from commercial DJI drones repurposed for grenade drops to purpose-built kamikaze drones that cost a fraction of the missiles they're designed to destroy.
The lessons from Ukraine's front lines are being absorbed rapidly by NATO allies. Cheap, mass-produced drones have proven capable of neutralizing armoured vehicles worth millions. Electronic warfare — jamming, spoofing, and counter-drone systems — has become just as critical as traditional firepower.
For military planners in allied nations, including Canada, the message is clear: the next major conflict will be decided in part by whoever masters the drone.
Canada's Role in Latvia
Canada has a meaningful stake in what's happening in Latvia. Since 2017, Canada has led NATO's Enhanced Forward Presence battlegroup in the country — a multinational force stationed on NATO's eastern flank as a deterrent against Russian aggression. Thousands of Canadian Armed Forces members have rotated through Latvia under Operation REASSURANCE, making it one of Canada's most significant ongoing overseas military commitments.
With drone warfare now central to the tactical picture, Canadian soldiers training and serving in Latvia are getting a front-row seat to the future of conflict. The training exercises Brewster documented show soldiers practising how to detect, evade, and counter unmanned threats — skills that simply weren't prioritized a decade ago.
What This Means Going Forward
The rise of drones and battlefield robots raises profound questions beyond just tactics. How do you maintain command and control when machines make split-second decisions? What are the ethical frameworks for autonomous weapons? And for a country like Canada, with a mid-sized military budget and a strong peacekeeping tradition, how do you compete in an era where drone swarms can be deployed for less than the cost of a single fighter jet?
Defence analysts have been pushing Ottawa to accelerate investment in drone capabilities and counter-drone systems. Canada's 2024 defence policy update acknowledged the changing landscape, but critics have argued that actual procurement and training have lagged behind the urgency of the moment.
What's happening in Latvia isn't just a European problem. It's a preview of a world Canada's military will have to navigate — whether on a NATO mission, a peacekeeping deployment, or, in a worst case, something closer to home.
Source: CBC News / The National, reporting by Murray Brewster from Latvia.
