Consumer Drone Warfare: Practices, Aesthetics and Discourses of Consumer Drones in the Russo-Ukrainian War

In the early stage of Russia’s war in Ukraine, the Bayraktar drone emerged as a symbol of Ukrainian resistance. Though the Bayraktar became a pop culture icon that circulated through social media via videos, songs and memes, its actual use on the battlefield soon got overshadowed by another type of drone: the humble consumer drone provided by manufacturers like DJI and Autel. We argue that this shift towards off-the-shelf consumer drones is marked by new practices of wartime drone flight, new aesthetics of battlefield footage and—importantly—a notable shift in the drone discourse towards more ‘heroic’ narratives. Starting from the observation that the existing body of work on conventional drone warfare does not readily map onto what we call ‘consumer drone warfare’, this chapter aims to shed light on how battlefield footage produced by consumer drones enters the online discourse and—consequently—our day-to-day lives. We posit that the intimate depictions of violence produced by consumer drones serve (at least) two functions: they allow a besieged state to perform (aerial) sovereignty while eliciting support for the war effort at the same time, for example through crowdfunding schemes like the Drones for Ukraine Fund.