Pay No Attention to the Expensive ISR Behind the Curtain!

NATO Intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) assets are the real unsung heroes diplomatically hidden behind the curtain as the flashy Ukrainian Unmanned Surface Vessels (USVs) are pushed on the stage to receive the applause.

Oh? 

The U.S. Navy is seeking to adopt useful lessons from the Ukrainian experience using naval drones to defeat the Russian Black Sea Fleet. Ukraine had only surface-to-ship missiles when the war started, but eventually shifted to three new naval drones, Sea Baby, Mother, and MAGURA, or Maritime Autonomous Guard Unmanned Robotic Apparatus.

In the absence of ships or aircraft able to operate far from Ukraine's shores, the naval drones (USVs) did give Ukraine the range their shore-based missiles lacked. But the lesson isn't the naval drones. They are just the object of Torpedo Boat Craze 2.0. NATO states have the assets to achieve range. The lesson is the expensive NATO surveillance and targeting assets that aimed the drones. 

I say my ASuROC suggestion based on ASROC giving anti-submarine torpedoes more range would be superior to most of the USVs:

There was a time when torpedoes were commonly carried by planes to drop the short-range weapons close to ships, risking planes and pilots to get the dumb torpedoes too close to easily evade.

As time has passed I really think my [ASuROC] idea has promise. Especially as surface suicide drone mania rages. Why drive your surface drone at slow speeds to the distant target when you could use a robotic craft to rapidly fly a robot-driven torpedo that remains submerged as it heads for its target?

The Navy needs to learn the lessons from the reality and not the mythology.

UPDATE: Keep in mind that the Ukrainians almost certainly had foreign help with intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance for their spectacular special forces aerial drone attack on Russia's strategic aircraft deep inside Russia. Google Earth won't cut it for something like this.   

NOTE: TDR Winter War of 2022 coverage continues here.

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NOTE: I grabbed the ancient Wizard of Oz image from the InterTubes.