The panty-flinging over small suicide drones will soon be officially embarrassing.
This author writes that counter-measures being rushed into service will supplement existing tactics and equipment to end the reign of small, cheap suicide drone dominance. The drones will need to follow the path of air forces to be effective:
In many ways, AI-enabled UAS could mimic air force tactics developed soon after the invention of the combat aircraft. There would be intelligence gathering, attack and bomber drones for the forward battlefield, interceptors to warn of inbound attacks and fighter variants for aerial combat. Thus, AI-enabled drones will undoubtedly be a potent 21st century air force, augmenting, if not replacing, a human in the cockpit — a capability that’s dangerously inexpensive and no longer exclusive to nation states.
I wrote much the same, most recently in this post about the rise of counter-measures and the "brown sky" air campaigns mimicking the blue sky Air Force campaigns:
Indeed, the drones might fight low-level air campaigns in the "brown skies" just above forward combat units that look like "blue sky" Air Force campaigns with specialty drones for ground attack, recon, electronic warfare, intercepting enemy drones or protecting friendly drones, and maybe aerial refueling. You might even have recovery drones to pick up downed UAVs.
The small drones aren't finished, the author writes. I agree. They will be one more piece of the combined arms kit.
NOTE: TDR Winter War of 2022 coverage continues here.
NOTE: You may also like to read my posts on Substack, at The Dignified Rant: Evolved. Go ahead and subscribe to it. You know you want to.
NOTE: I made the image with Bing.
