Not long ago, President Donald Trump, joined by VP JD Vance, bullied Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelenskyy during a White House sit-down in which the latter was being bullied into caving on Russian demands. "You don't have the cards," roared Trump while a Trump-allied reporter made fun of Zelenskyy's military attire.
It turns out that Trump was wrong. Zelenskyy does have the cards and has been playing them with great effectiveness. His drones have wreaked havoc on maritime shipping in the Caspian Sea and at Russian Wildberries outlets, which is their Amazon equivalent. This hurts both Russia's military and its economy.
That's only part of the story. In addition to ramping up its offensive use of drones, Ukraine has been manufacturing cheap and very effective drone interceptors at costs of between $2,000-10,000 per unit, depending on whether the drone being intercepted is powered by a jet engine.
Gulf states are quickly turning to Ukraine to acquire both interceptors and drone defense technology. This makes sense. Drones can be intercepted by SAMs or our own drones, but at a much higher cost than the drones themselves. I would hope that we are seeking some help from Ukraine as well.
I know that one or two Navy warships are equipped with lasers than could take down a drone at a cost of about a nickel. But we've been far too slow in adjusting to a changing battlefield landscape.
No comments:
Post a Comment