Building Tanks While the Ukrainians Master Drones

https://www.theatlantic.com/national-security/2026/03/who-needs-tanks-age-drones/686540/

by PanMan • 4 months ago

5 3 4 months ago

I am from that side of the world originally and been paying attention to this conflict daily for last 5 years. It is infuriating to see the terrible arrogance of the weapon makers towards hard-won cleverness and ingenuity of Ukranians and even Russians. The era of high cost high tech things like helicopters, tanks and airplanes is clearly in transition to cheap swarms of drones. The famous operation last year where the Ukranians drove trucks to airports, launched drones from them and destroyed a bunch of irreplaceable Russian strategic aviation can be trivially done here at Lewis McChord base and I am sure nobody would be able detect it. The current war in Iran shooting down cheap Shaheds with multimillion dollar Patriots is also insane. This is yet another example of established companies just milking the budgets and not focusing on next conflict.

The sci-fi authors have been writing about this for a while. Artur C. Clarke's "Superiority" comes to mind as exactly that situation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superiority_(short_story) and I remember reading somewhere it used to be mandatory reading in Army education. But of course none of our leaders here read anymore.

JumpCrisscross• 4 months ago

era of high cost high tech things like helicopters, tanks and airplanes is clearly in transition

Tanks, yes. Helicopters, possibly. Planes, no. A stealth plane or heavy bomber can do things a drone cannot, and currently evades both air defenses and drones when used properly.

Someone• 4 months ago

A stealth plane or heavy bomber can do things a drone cannot,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unmanned_aerial_vehicle: “An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or unmanned aircraft system (UAS), commonly known as an aerial drone or simply drone”

⇒ “Drone” is orthogonal to size or shape. It is possible to design an unmanned aircraft that can (largely) replaced manned fighters or bombers.

And that isn’t hypothetical. See for example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manned-unmanned_teaming, https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/products/s-70uas-u-hawk...

Building Tanks While the Ukrainians Master Drones

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