Ukraine’s military is using gamification to turn combat against Russian forces into a real-life “Call of Duty” video game, enticing its soldiers with weapons upgrades and a point system for confirming real-life kills of the enemy.
Dubbed the “Army of Drones bonus,” the program allows service members to earn “points” by submitting mission videos that prove they hit Russian targets. Soldiers can use those points in an online marketplace, named “Brave 1 Market,” to purchase upgraded equipment for their units.
Describing the program at an April military tech conference in Kyiv, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, said Brave 1 Market “will be like Amazon for the military, [it] will allow military units to directly purchase technologies they need on the war front.”
Gamification utilizes game mechanics, such as points, leaderboards, and badges, to influence behavior and has been applied since the early 2000s to enhance customer loyalty programs, healthcare, education, and workplace productivity. The points often translate into real-world rewards that go beyond the satisfaction of winning.
Drone warfare, which has advanced exponentially in the Ukraine war, lends itself to gamification. Onboard cameras automatically record and verify kills, unlike in traditional combat, in which it is often harder to confirm a successful strike.
The Army of Drones program doles out points according to the military value of a strike, awarding 20 points for inflicting damage, 40 points for destroying a tank, and 50 points for wiping out a mobile rocket launch system. Six points are given for each Russian soldier killed.
The soldiers must upload their video footage to the Ukrainian military’s Delta communication system to confirm the kills and be awarded the points, which can be used to trade up their arsenal. For 43 points, soldiers can purchase a Vampire drone, which can carry a 15-kilogram warhead.
“In short, you destroy, you get the points, you buy a drone using the points,” Mr. Fedorov said.
In June, Ukraine launched a barrage of drones in a coordinated attack dubbed “Operation Spiderweb” targeting Russian airbases across several regions of the country. The attacks, which were dubbed “the Russian Pearl Harbor,” used a total of 177 drones smuggled into Russia in shipping containers to damage dozens of nuclear bombers and other aircraft, causing what Ukraine claimed was $7 billion in damage to the military assets.
Since its launch, over 400 units, about 95 percent of Ukraine’s drone operators, have joined the program, and the confirmed kills have doubled, according to United 24 Media, a government-operated news and information site. Ukrainian drone forces have destroyed thousands of Russian tanks, UAVs, electronic warfare systems, air defense platforms, artillery pieces, and ammunition depots, according to Deputy PM Federov.
