Bayraktar TB2 drones were hailed as Ukraine's savior and the future of warfare. A year later, they've practically disappeared.

Multiple reports and videos surfaced of Ukraine using the weapons to strike Russian tanks, armor, and patrol boats. Their popularity even inspired a viral folk song.

However, a little over a year later, the once-prized drones have almost entirely been shot down, and those that remain reduced to reconnaissance duties, according to an expert.

"The general assessment of drones like TB2 is that they work well without sophisticated air and electronic warfare defenses arrayed against them," Samuel Bendett, an analyst and expert in unmanned and robotic military systems at the Center for Naval Analyses, told Insider.

"As a relatively slow and low-flying UAV, it can become a target for a range of air defense systems that are well organized – we saw this in Libya and in Nagorno-Karabakh."

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