Lieutenant Colonel Amos C. Fox, USA, Ret., PhD
Introduction
The air-ground littoral, or AGL, is a concept in military operations that has improved in value since the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War; operations in the AGL are increasingly becoming the prime currency in warfare. During that war, Azeri unmanned aerial systems (UAS) took the front seat in military operations, while their traditional weapon systems, such as tanks, infantry and other land-based systems, took the back seat. Azeri UAS, flying at relatively low altitudes, were able to slice through Armenian land forces in a matter of weeks and deliver one of the 21st century’s first decisive wars.1
Whereas Nagorno-Karabakh sparked curiosity in the AGL, Russia’s reinvasion of Ukraine in February 2022 stoked the flames of interest due to the commanding position that small UAS (sUAS) have taken during the conflict. While larger medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) UAS played an important role for Ukrainian forces during the opening days of the conflict, they quickly became easy prey for Russian counter-UAS (C-UAS).2 MALE UAS, being larger than sUAS, are easier to identify with conventional air defense systems.3 Military analyst Michael Kofman notes that easier targetability was the primary cause for the disappearance of the Ukrainian Bayraktar, and other high-altitude UAS on both sides of the conflict, after the first few weeks of the Russo-Ukrainian War.4 Moreover, as military analyst Franz-Stefan Gady correctly illustrates, the detectability of larger, higher-flying UAS has caused both Ukraine and Russia to invest in small, cheaper, harder-to-identify UAS, thereby infesting the AGL with a panoply of unmanned rotary-wing weapons and reconnaissance and surveillance systems.5
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