Ukrainian drones struck outside Moscow on Thursday (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)
AFP via Getty Images
Attendees to this week’s Eurosatory, the world’s largest international land and air defense and security exhibition, would have seen countless highly-produced and carefully choreographed “sizzle reels" that highlighted the capabilities of various aerospace and defense platforms being offered to potential buyers. Most of the high-energy promotional videos were shot on military firing ranges or proving grounds and under controlled conditions.
Ukrainian drone maker Fire Point offered something a bit different at the expo, which kicked off on Monday at the Paris Nord Villepinte Exhibition Centre and concluded on Friday.
On Thursday, at its booth, Fire Point included video footage recorded just hours earlier of an attack carried out on the Russian capital.
As David Hambling wrote for Forbes.com, the videos weren’t from a firing range, and instead they showed Ukrainian drones striking multiple targets in an oil refinery in Moscow’s Kapotnya district, causing mass destruction to the facility. One video that has been widely shared across social media included the lid of an oil storage tank propelled high into the sky, appearing to be a flying saucer surrounded by dark smoke. The clip quickly spawned dozens of memes.
There is the old saying that there is no such thing as bad publicity, and for Kyiv, the drone attack and the uncensored video footage that captured the attack in real-time could be described as a PR coup. It was even more impressive that Fire Point quickly presented the clips on its video wall at Eurosatory.
Although a variety of drones were employed in the attack, Fire Point didn’t miss an opportunity to highlight its role. Moreover, attendees at the show in Paris saw the capabilities of Ukraine’s unmanned aerial systesm even as the refineries were still burning in Moscow.
“What Fire Point did at Eurosatory is a master class in real-time proof of concept,” added Angeli Gianchandani, global brand strategist and professor of integrated marketing and communications at New York University.
The footage wasn’t that different from what could be seen on social media or news broadcasts. However, it was presented on a video wall literally feet away from a display of one of the models of drones employed in the attacks.
That this was largely unplanned and unscripted could make it all the more effective.
“Defense buyers have always been shown capability,” Gianchandani wrote in an email. “Ukraine just collapsed the gap between demonstration and deployment to near-zero. When strike footage from Thursday morning is on a conference screen in Paris by Thursday afternoon, you’re no longer selling a product – you’re selling certainty.”
The typical sizzle reels offer promises, but the footage of the strikes on Moscow offered what actually happened when the weapon systems were used in the real world. For procurement officers and allied governments watching, that distinction could be everything.
“No controlled range test can manufacture it,” suggested Gianchandani.
Defense contractors regularly pitch their products to potential buyers at the various arms exhibitions and airshows, and in many cases they pull out all the stops. It is possible to see tanks crush cars or advanced aircraft perform aerial demonstrations, but it could be argued that buyers still have to question how well a system will perform in actual combat.
This week, Ukraine’s drone makers answered the question directly.
“While it’s common for a company to showcase their products at an exhibition, Fire Point was in a very unique position to highlight the abilities of its drones, hours after the Armed Forces of Ukraine conducted strikes in Moscow,” explained Jason Mollica, lecturer in the School of Communication Studies at James Madison University.
“The presentation by Fire Point is more about how their long-range attack drones are being used, successfully, by the AFU,” Mollica wrote in an email. “The reel showing that destruction to the oil refinery amplifies the reliability and accuracy of Fire Point’s weapons. The Ukrainian government hopes those drones help to end the over four-year war.”
The other part of the story is that it served as a reminder that four and a half years after Russia launched its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, Kyiv is still in the fight, but is also showing the world how unmanned aerial systems continue to be game changers and even force multipliers.
Ukraine is taking the fight to Russia, and as David Hambling suggested in his report, Kyiv has shown the world that it is a drone superpower.
“This signals something deeper about how Ukraine has evolved as a defense actor,” Gianchandani continued. “At the outset of the war, the world supplied Ukraine. Now Ukraine is cultivating the world’s trust in its own industrial capacity. Showing up to Eurosatory with live combat footage is Kyiv saying: we are not just a recipient of this technology, we are a generator of it.”
Thus, what Ukraine demonstrated at Eurosatory is not just marketing; it highlights a new form of leadership in the defense space.
“Showing real strike footage within hours is not shock value; it is proof of a nation that deeply understands what trust requires and is willing to earn it, transparently and in real time,” emphasized Gianchandani. “That is not just good strategy; that is responsible leadership under the most extreme conditions imaginable.”
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