For decades the satellite image was a privilege of generals. It travelled along a chain: intelligence agency, then command, and only then - maybe - to the person who actually has to do something on the ground. That chain has broken in Ukraine, and the consequence is bigger than it sounds.

According to the „New York Times”, the Ukrainian military was using satellite imagery from Western governments and private companies even before the war began in February 2022. What is new is the speed. Today the same system lets frontline units use data from space almost immediately - to find and strike targets.

From orbit to the drone operator

High-quality imagery goes directly to the units. That means faster target identification, more precise plotting of drone flight paths and verification of the result of the strike itself. Among the targets uncovered this way are weapons depots, logistics centres and places where troops are concentrating - both in territories under Russian control and deep inside Russia itself.

Particularly interesting is a system from the Dutch company Bravo One Alpha. It allows imagery to be transferred directly to a portable device resembling a games console. Through it, the operator reviews the terrain, looks for targets and plots the flight route.

A similar system has already shown that an image can reach a soldier's phone, tablet or computer in about fifteen minutes. From fifteen minutes to a decision - that is now the entire process.

The unit requests the image itself, picks the target, then checks what is left

In certain cases Ukrainian units can request that a satellite photograph a specific area, analyse the resulting images, choose a target, carry out the strike, and then request imaging of the same location again to check the result.

Read that sentence once more. A procedure once reserved for the largest intelligence services is now descending to tactical level, to people working from a table in a tent.

The cooperation did not begin in 2022

Even before the conflict started, the American National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency was helping route commercial satellite data from various companies to Ukraine, to the US military's European command and to NATO. American officials spoke about this publicly as early as spring 2022.

The volume of data only grew afterwards. Before the Ukrainian incursion into the Kursk region in 2024, Kyiv was receiving satellite imagery from the United States and Britain to track the movement of Russian reinforcements.

What a small region should take from this

The fundamental change is not technological but structural. Information that used to be power at the top is now a tool at the bottom. That changes both the nature of the war and the nature of command - because a soldier with a satellite image in hand does not wait for approval the way he used to.

And here is the part that does not concern only Ukraine. Satellite intelligence capability is no longer exclusively a state matter - part of it is bought from private companies. Do small states, including those in the Balkans, give any thought to what that means for their own security? Or will they only start thinking about it once somebody else shows them the picture?