Two-way Drone war

The conflict between Russia and Georgia seems to have started an unprecedented arms build up between the two counties. Except, instead of hoarding guns or nuclear armaments the counties have been seeking advanced drones.

When the South-Ossetian war started in 2008, Georgia initially had an advantage due to the advanced intelligence provided by their advanced Hermes-450 drones, which are nearly as technologically advanced as the Predator drones that the US military employs. Russia on the other hand was stuck using bomber and fighter jets in place of drones for surveillance before even getting access to actual drones. When Russia finally sent out their outdated drones, many were lost because of their outdated technology and were generally ineffective.

Russian officials said that the losses suffered due to the outdated drones was "calamitous" and have recently made a deal with Israeli defense contractors to upgrade their drones to more modern standards, ironically from the same source that Georgia's Hermes-450 Drones came from.

The conflict in the middle east has seen its fair share of drone warfare as well, but the vast majority came from the United States and were used against enemies of the American military. The South-Ossetian war was the first conflict where an actual drone war started, while Russia eventually won the conflict it was a messy victory for them partly due to the unreliable nature of their drones and surveillance compared to the advanced tech that Georgia had employed at the time. 

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/russia/121022/russia-georgia-drones-little-war?page=0,1