Aerial drones are the current darlings of the military writer class. I'll nod some respect their way but won't be flinging my figurative panties.
Over a year ago it was obvious that drones were dominating the battlefield in Ukraine. In July 2024 a senior Ukrainian defense official once more confirmed this and observed that the dominance of drones in combat was increasing. Since the war began in early 2022 drone use has increased at the expense of traditional artillery.
They're certainly part of a complete breakfast. But "dominating"?
I don't believe they are supplanting artillery because of intrinsic superiority. While drones seem useful, part of their so-called dominance has been caused by a decline in artillery availability. That is significant.
I'll wait to see how ramped up artillery ammo and gun barrel liner production--and new drone counter-measures--affect the post-introduction FPV drone advantage. The God of War is not so easily spurned.
One counter-measure is simply new tactics for the would-be targets:
A Ukrainian drone operator stated that Russian forces are using smaller infantry units to attack Ukrainian forces from several directions simultaneously, making it more difficult for Ukrainian forces to target them.
Area artillery fire would work against that.
American army and marines are planning to issue more [small Switchblade suicide drones] to their own troops for use as a standard weapon, like existing rocket launchers and portable anti-tank weapons.
FPV suicide drones just seem really familiar, eh?
Stop looking for the silver bullet weapon.
NOTE: TDR Winter War of 2022 coverage continues here.
NOTE: I'm adding updates on the Last Hamas War in this post.NOTE: You may also read my posts on Substack, at The Dignified Rant: Evolved.NOTE: The image was made using DALL-E 3 on Bing.
