The military arsenals of the great powers, and not only them, are increasingly teeming with unmanned, that is, unmanned means - aircraft, submarines, reconnaissance robots... Many such weapons, until recently considered futuristic, are in use today, he writes. N1.
Drones of all types have become one of the most important such systems in the war in Ukraine. Their relatively cheap, yet highly effective technology has significantly changed the way warfare is fought in recent years.
Ukraine, considered militarily inferior to Russia, thanks to carefully designed and executed drone attacks, managed to cause enormous damage deep in Russian territory. On the other hand Rusija makes extensive use of drones for targeted attacks in Ukraine.
Cheap but deadly aircraft
In recent weeks, they have intensified and Drone incursions into the airspace of European NATO members: Poland, Romania, the Baltic countries, Norway, Denmark, and on Thursday there are drones also spotted in the sky above Munich causing alarm and disruption in civil aviation in Germany. In all these incidents, the drones, at least publicly and officially, remained unidentified. It is rightly suspected that these are Russian drones, although the controversies reinforce interpretations that they may have (also) been used by the Ukrainian side.
However, drones are undoubtedly cheap, easily accessible and very effective weapons, a kind of consumable, but very profitable because with low costs and capacities they can cause enormous damage. This summer's Ukrainian drone attacks at five military air bases in Russia (some of which are thousands of kilometers from Ukraine) where a third of Russia's strategic bombers were destroyed or damaged. It has been shown that aircraft worth a few hundred thousand dollars can destroy those worth several billion dollars.
Or like during a recent raid 19 Russian drones enter Polish airspace where, as it was later reported, NATO missiles worth $400.000 were targeting forty times cheaper aircraft made of plywood and Styrofoam.
"Drones are what tanks once were"
"Drones have absolutely brought a new dimension to warfare, especially through the Ukrainian war. They have become what the machine gun was in the First World War, that is tank in World War II - a weapon that changes the battlefield and shapes the tactics of combat operations. We see that both sides in the war in Ukraine have adapted to this," says a military analyst Marinko Ogorec.
Ogorec considers what has been happening in Europe in recent weeks - frequent drone incursions into the airspace of EU and NATO member states - to be very sensitive and unclear.
"The big question is what this is really about. The drones that were over Norway, Denmark, and now Germany have not been shot down or identified. What is this about? If it enters the realm of psychological warfare when you simply cannot define the threat, then everything around it is very questionable. We have to wait and see what else happens. Is this really hybrid warfare "Russian, and perhaps some other parties, or the irresponsible actions of some individuals. It is not known at this time what is actually at stake," he says.
"It's still a 'game changer' in people's minds"
Despite the effectiveness of relatively inexpensive drones, Ogorec does not believe that smaller countries that are not military powers can become important players on the military front with them.
"When we talk about weapons systems and how they have developed over time, in the end they have largely remained just tools. Similarly, we must see drones only as tools for combat operations. For now, war is still being waged by humans. The question is how and in what direction they will develop." Artificial Intelligence. If in ten years we will see scenes similar to those from Terminator, then it is a different story and then we will be able to talk about a new dimension of warfare. So far it is not an option and drones are still just a tool in the hands of people, like a machine gun, a tank or submarine"Weapon systems are not a 'game changer'. The military 'game changer' is still in the minds of people, in operational systems, in command and those who have the motivation, ability and creativity. In short, drones are just one episode in the history of warfare," he points out.
Nine plywood 'decoys' and one real one
Ogorec agrees that drones are consumables.
"There are a whole range of different shapes and types of drones that are literally used as so-called decoys to attract the enemy's air defenses. Those 19 drones sent to Poland, made of plywood and Styrofoam, were just that. I don't know if they even reach the price of $ 1.000 apiece. These are very cheap systems that serve as decoys while at the same time the real systems do their job. Such drones have become extremely widespread, they are produced in huge quantities and used together with combat drones. So if you have ten drones coming at you, you can't assess which of them is combat and which is decoy. Let only one be combat, you still have nine targets that you have to shoot down," explains this military analyst.
The announced mass production of small FPV drones in Croatia Ogorec considers this excellent news.
"We have mastered this production, which is perhaps one of Croatia's best moves in recent times. The production of drones used in combat operations is relatively simple and very cheap. It sounds like nonsense, but it is a fact: drones used in the war in Ukraine can be cheaper even than artillery shells," he said.
Source: N1
Photo: Pixabay
