Russia and Ukraine both intend to field 5 million drones against each other this year. Competent military personnel around the globe understand that warfare has fundamentally changed. Politicians don’t, and there’s too much to be grifted under the older and now outmoded procurement regimes. From Semper Doctrina at semperdoctrina.substack.com:
We wake to news this morning that Russia repelled another drone swarm last night: Over the past three nights, the Russian Defense Ministry claims to have intercepted around 500 drones.
DRONE WARFARE – – REMARKABLE MANY WAYS – – ESPECIALLY NUMBERS
The volume of drones being used in the Ukrainian conflict is mind-boggling. While there has been active fighting in Ukraine for decades, let’s focus on the last three years, the time following Russia’s entrance into Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
The numbers are difficult to pin down exactly, but we can make broad guesses based on media reports. Russia and Ukraine each fielded about 100 thousand drones in 2023; ten times that number, or 1 million, in 2024; and intends to field five times that number this year – – 5 million each. Ten million new drones in 2025!
Russia and Ukraine, collectively, will crank out a drone every three seconds.
“Our arrows will blot out the Sun,” said the Persian.
“Then we will fight in the shade,” replied the Spartan Selios.
Battle of Thermopylae, 480BC, as depicted in the film “300” (2007)
DRONE BATTLEFIELD IS UNSURVIVABLE BY MAN OR MACHINE
For the individual soldier, the land is as uninhabitable as the chemical-gassed and aerially-bombarded front lines of World War I. They are afraid to move, afraid to eat, and afraid to sleep. The stress is immense – – this causes them to make mistakes, lethal ones, in an atmosphere of constant surveillance.
Drones have created a buzzing, shimmering, all-covering “minefield” in the sky.
It is estimated that 75% of Russian and Ukrainian casualties are drone-related.
It is equally inhospitable to machine. We are accustomed to stories of the horrible IED, or improvised explosive device, that our soldiers encountered in the Middle East over the past few decades. Drones have given these a new twist: A recent development is the drone that loiters on the side of a roadway. When a vehicle passes by, the drone takes flight, catches the vehicle at a vulnerable point, and then detonates its explosive charge.
Drone IEDs are the roadways’ lethal, attack dogs, omnipresent, lying in wait.
During the early days of the conflict, drones were relatively expensive and weren’t used in these “kamikaze” ways. As costs declined and as drones became available in quantity, they took over the battlefield.
ERA OF MANNED CRAFT IS OVER, AS OF THE UKRAINIAN CONFLICT
The cost effectiveness of drones makes it so. This is true for all scenarios, drone versus tank, plane, or ship. Let’s do tanks.
RF drone tech not impressed by FUSA drone.
They have several hand held drone interceptors as countermeasures.
Manboons off the battlefield is about the only silver lining of Artificial Idiot revolution.
Just wait until it demands all the power that can be generated and then some.