Mick Ryan
From the start of the 2022 Russian invasion, uncrewed aerial vehicles have been used in a wide range of missions by both the Ukrainians and Russians. As the war has progressed, the Ukrainian navy began to experiment with, and has now mastered, the development and employment of uncrewed maritime strike systems. A range of small boats and semi-submersibles have been employed to strike Russian naval vessels in the Black Sea, forcing the Russians to restrict their operations in the western parts of that body of water.
This explosion in the use of autonomous and remotely operated systems in Ukraine has seen both Ukraine and Russia develop the ability to not only produce millions of drones annually, but it has seen the development of a rapid adaptation battle, where drones are developed, deployed and evolved with an increasing tempo. The Cambrian Explosion in Drones in Ukraine has also forced military institutions around the world to reconsider their investment in such systems, and to re-assess the balance of traditional, exquisite systems against uncrewed capabilities in military organisations, and how they might improve their defences against massed, uncrewed systems in the air, land and sea domains.
Another more interesting trend has arisen which will force policy makers and military strategists to undertake an even more careful analysis of Ukraine war trends, and how these trends apply in other theatres, particularly the Pacific. This trend, robotic teaming, has emerged over the past year with the advent on drone-on-drone combat in the air and on the ground. In particular, several recent combat actions in Ukraine provide insights that need to be studied and translated for their employment in the massive ocean expanses, tens of thousands of kilometres of littoral, thousands of large and small islands and at least three continents that constitute the Pacific theatre.
No comments:
Post a Comment