DailyPost 2002
AERIAL MINEFIELD – WAR WILL NEVER BE THE SAME AGAIN
If you are able to decide whether to hit a target or not, till two seconds preceding it, will it not be a game changer? These and numerous other capabilities are adding to the military might of countries, which intend to use these technologies to their benefit. Notwithstanding, the use of drones in combat areas from Afghanistan to Syria and the definitive edge it has provided, for the first time in a major war, in front of the world audience, war veterans and defense experts, one of its kind Drone War is being played out. Drones can tilt the balance of military power and precision, and so can the very face of war. The Russia Ukraine War would go down in history, as a war which made drones take the centerpiece of the theatre of war.
The days of jet fighters and missiles are not going to end, but they would cease to be the demigods in the war zone. Drones complementing and supplementing or the vice versa, is becoming the order of the day in this war. Slowly, the military strategy is being rewritten by the availability and the capability of the drones. Fully autonomous systems are still a whole world away, but drones are giving us a peep into the warfare of tomorrow. What all can a drone do is a penetrative question, but the more logical thought is, what lethal firepower does it lack, and that too, with no loss of human life and at a price which nobody could have imagined a few years back, not even in the drone industry. The videos of swarm drones we have seen sometime or the other, it might turn out to be a reality now.
Swarm formations of drones can be used as a defensive shield, which can be transformed into an offensive weapon in no time. Loitering munitions capability, the drones bring to the table. The current war is unfolding and testing every bit of drone technology to the last wire. Putin had enough of ‘mocking’ with images and videos of Russian tanks, air defenses and convoys being destroyed by drones and artillery fire. On March 12, Russia released a video most likely taken by an Orlan-10 UAV, showing Krasnopol laser-guided artillery strikes in Kyiv Oblast. Orlan-10 was developed by Russian firm Special Technology Center. Ukrainian sources show a Russian made ‘kamikaze’ drone that fell over the Ukrainian capital, this being the first documented evidence of Russian forces deploying loitering munitions to Ukraine. The drone KYB ‘kamikaze’ UAV developed by Russian Zala Aero Group, is a subsidiary of Kalashnikov group.
Reconnaissance and attack are the main capabilities. Bayrakter TB2, Turkish made drones have been doing wonders for Ukraine. It has been integrated neatly in their war machine. The total number remains unknown. To bolster this war machine further, the US will send 100 Switchblade drones as a part of a $100 million weapons package. ”The inclusion of the tactical drones, which crash into targets, represents a new phase of weapons being sent to Ukraine by the US.” Tested and successfully used in Afghanistan by US special forces, it is a small, light drone, which can loiter in the air till 30 mins before being directed to the target. It is launched like a mortar shell, and has a real time GPS guidance, which can be guided till it crashes and explodes. It was picked up by US Army and Marine Corps as well. It would be the weaponry to watch, once deployed in the Russia – Ukraine war.
DRONE SUPERIORITY MAY TURN OUT TO BE BATTLE SUPERIORITY IN THE ONGOING RUSSIA UKRAINE WAR.”
Sanjay Sahay