The Ramifications of Ukraine’s Drone Assault
You’ll be able to learn the small print of Operation Spiderweb elsewhere. What pursuits me are the implications for future warfare:
If the Ukrainians might sneak drones so near main air bases in a police state corresponding to Russia, what’s to forestall the Chinese language from doing the identical with U.S. air bases? Or the Pakistanis with Indian air bases? Or the North Koreans with South Korean air bases? Militaries that thought that they had secured their air bases with electrified fences and guard posts will now must reckon with the menace from the skies posed by low-cost, ubiquitous drones that cFan be simply modified for navy use. This may necessitate an enormous funding in counter-drone techniques. Cash spent on standard manned weapons techniques more and more seems to be to be as wasted as spending on the cavalry within the Thirties.
The Atlantic makes comparable factors.
There’s a steadiness between the price of the factor, and the price to destroy the factor, and that steadiness is altering dramatically. This isn’t new, after all. Right here’s an article from final 12 months about the price of drones versus the price of top-of-the-line fighter jets. If $35K in drones (117 drones instances an estimated $300 per drone) can destroy $7B in Russian bombers and different long-range plane, why would anybody construct extra of these planes? And we are able to have this dialogue about ships, or tanks, or just about each different navy car. After which we are able to add in drone-coordinating applied sciences like swarming.
Clearly we want extra analysis on remotely and robotically disabling drones.
Posted on June 4, 2025 at 7:00 AM •
19 Feedback
Sidebar picture of Bruce Schneier by Joe MacInnis.
