The U.S. military is the most powerful and technologically advanced force in the world, but changes in battlefield tactics could cause leaders to adapt to cheaper technologies that have proven lethal around the world.
“The war in Ukraine is a perfect example of how multi-million dollar military technology can be rendered obsolete by $500 drones,” said Drone expert, former Army intelligence officer and special operations soldier. Brett Velikovich told FOX News Digital.
Ivanovets was placed on the list after several drones dealt fatal blows. (East 2 West)
Velikovich’s comments come as Ukraine has continued to use cheap and widely available drones against Russian tanks, ships and bases with great success since the war began. is an important tactic to counter what is largely viewed as a one-sided battle between the Ukrainian military and a technologically superior Ukrainian military. enemy of Russia.
“One of Russia’s top naval vessels was destroyed in the Black Sea by what is essentially a jet ski.” “The drones probably cost less than a few thousand dollars to build, but two or three of them hit and sank a huge Russian naval ship,” Velikovich said.
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Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Fitzgerald (U.S. Navy/Mass Communication Specialist Sailor David Flewellyn/Handout)
But it’s not just the Russian military that is facing this changing battlefield reality; the cheaper technology is also being used against U.S. forces engaged in operations around the world.
In January, the destroyer USS Gravely was forced to use close-in weapons systems to defeat anti-ship missiles fired at the ship by Houthi militants. The missile came within a mile of the Navy ship before engaging the CIWS system, a radar-guided Gatling gun designed to be the U.S. Navy’s last line of defense, the National Interest reported. . Warship.
Earlier this week, the United States responded by attacking Houthi targets in Yemen in what the Pentagon called “self-defense strikes.”
“CENTCOM has identified anti-ship cruise missiles, unmanned submarines, and unmanned surface vessels in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen and has determined that they pose an imminent threat to U.S. naval vessels and commercial vessels in the region.” The military announced. statement.
This month, missiles are fired from a warship during a U.S.-led coalition operation against Yemen’s Houthi rebels. (U.S. Central Command)
American naval vessels are equipped with weapons systems and defensive equipment designed to neutralize threats from miles away, but such ammunition is in short supply and expensive to build and purchase.
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According to a National Interest report, unit costs for the Navy’s standard missile family could range from $2.4 million per missile for the SM-2 to $4.3 million per missile for the SM-6. According to the report, the SM-3 ballistic missile interceptor costs the Navy $36 million apiece, all at a hefty cost to combat low-tech drones operated by militants like the Houthis. be.
Iran released a video of Shahed drone on February 24, 2023. (IRINN via AP)
U.S. ground forces have also been forced to face new battlefield realities, most notably last month when a drone attack on the US Tower 22 base in Jordan killed three American soldiers and injured 41 more. be.
Jordanian soldiers patrol the border with Syria to stop drug trafficking on February 17, 2022. (Khalil Mazraoui/AFP via Getty Images)
Even before the attack, William LaPlante, the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, had warned that the United States needed to acquire additional anti-drone capabilities.
“This is an urgent matter,” LaPlante said at a defense conference in December, calling the situation a “crisis.”
Online publication Task & Purpose reports that the Army is currently rushing to purchase additional anti-drone defense equipment with a $75 million, 600-aircraft Coyote 2C contract with Raytheon, which reports say “It is a wandering anti-drone weapon.” The Army uses its rapid acquisition authority to make purchases, allowing the branch to quickly provide critical defense tools to militaries around the world.
“Coyotes are a critical component of anti-UAS systems,” the Army said in a release. “It is a ground-launched radar-guided interceptor with dynamic and non-dynamic variants, integrated into a fixed-site low-speed small unmanned aircraft system integrated defeat system and an integrated low-speed small unmanned aircraft system .Defeat System.”
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The proliferation of drone technology means the problem isn’t going away anytime soon, Veljković said.
“Previously, it cost millions of dollars to buy a drone. Only nation-states could afford it, and only nation-states could understand the technology,” Veljković said. said. “That’s not the case anymore.”
Brent Sadler, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told Fox News Digital that low-tech threats to U.S. forces are “nothing new,” noting that in 2000 the USS Cole was attacked by a suicide bomber in Aden, Yemen. He pointed out the attack. A bomber on a cheap boat. But Sadler also cited the dangers of combining “high-tech missiles” with cheaper technology, such as drones, and argued that the United States still needs to be better prepared for changing circumstances.
USS Abraham Lincoln departs from San Diego. (KC Alfred/San Diego Union Tribune, via AP/File)
“The realities of naval warfare demonstrated in recent years make it clear that the U.S. Navy needs to catch up with China and Russia in developing hypersonic, highly lethal, advanced cruise missiles while also developing lower-cost options. “Sadler said. “At the top of the list are drones that can swarm and overwhelm defenders’ sensors to carry out attacks, or distract well-defended targets, allowing sophisticated weapons to reach them. is.”
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Meanwhile, Veljković said the United States must begin to “understand how wars are waged” around the world and adapt, as current conflicts demonstrate new and effective tactics. He pointed out the apparent inferiority of the military.
“Countries, terrorist groups, and various organizations are defending and fighting wars with little money,” Veljković said. “The future of war is going to be AI, and it’s going to be AI.” [vehicles], water, land, air, sea, small, low-cost drones. It must be part of our nation’s defense industry toolkit, not just a multibillion-dollar fighter jet. ”
